Imagine how you would feel if you had no one to love. No friends, no family. Even the person that is supposed to help you and take care of you doesn't care if your life is miserable. If this was your life, would you still be the confident, outgoing person that you are today? In Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, Hollis Woods is an unwanted orphan with one wish; to have a family. Even though she has been to innumerable foster homes over the last twelve years, no one has ever shown Hollis love. Hollis feels the need to protect her true emotions by acting defensive and disagreeable. Hollis may seem like a terrible child, but she is really just afraid of being hurt.
Even though Hollis is afraid of being hurt, she pretends to be defiant and strong. She shows examples of this very early in the book, on pages 3 and 4. She tells us on page 3 that she had stayed with a mysterious Regan family and that she ran away from them, but nothing else. She tries to make it seem like we would are prodding in to her private information by wanting to know more, but she's really just afraid of being judged about her reasons for running away. On page 4 she is being driven to another foster home. She seems like she is purposely ignoring her caseworker, but she is actually thinking about the Regan family and their son, Steven. Hollis has a hard time expressing her emotions because she is too afraid of how others will react to them.
Throughout the book, Hollis slowly looses some of her fear of being hurt because she is faced with impending situations that require judgment based on how she feels. Most of these situations are in the climax and falling action and decide how the story will end. One example is in chapter fifteen, when Hollis decides to call Beatrice to tell her to go live with Josie. Hollis realized that she cared more about Josie than she about being sent to another foster home. She realized that she loved Josie and wanted what was best for her. Another example is on page 162, when Hollis decides to do back to the Regan family. She knows that they love her and that she loves them. She finally realizes that not all of the problems are her fault and that she wants to go back. Hollis learns to act on her emotions and do what's right; which helps her find a family and be happy.
Hollis Woods is a lonely child that is afraid that people will hurt her if they see her true emotions. Throughout the story she slowly realizes that there are people that love her and gave her a family. Hollis starts the story felling troublesome and hurt, but she learns to let the people that she loves see her real thoughts and feelings.
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