Winterfolk

November 1, 2017

Gr 7 Up-Fifteen-year-old Rain lives among the homeless in a tent with her father in Seattle, WA. While her father struggles with alcoholism and making money from bead jewelry, Rain is fiercely guarded by King, a homeless 17-year-old who is determined to shield her from dangerous people and places that he knows well. When "Public Notice of Demolition" signs appear overnight stating that trespassers must leave, Rain's community is distraught but resigned. One day before their eviction, King warily takes Rain into the city where she discovers iconic landmarks; King's hangouts; his drug-dealing nemesis, Cook; the unexpected kindness of strangers; and her own vulnerability. Although no clear solutions are offered, Rain's story portrays the visceral poverty, social isolation, and self-reliance within her homeless community. Her first-person narrative reveals a teenager who wants to know more about life, feels physical attraction to King, and is comforted by mystical beliefs in stars and wishes. Rain's spare spoken words belie her fluent narrative thoughts and evocative descriptions. Rain and King embody loyalty and hope, but their cryptic dialogue and interactions and tacit understandings fuel unanswered questions about plot action, relationships, events, and their future. VERDICT Despite obscure references and unresolved issues, Rain's compassionate narrative illuminates emotional, psychosocial, educational, and physical challenges impacting homeless people. A strong purchase for YA shelves.-Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NC

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 27, 2017
Rain lives with her alcoholic father in a homeless camp outside Seattle. Despite threats to dismantle the encampment, Rain believes that those who live there—the Winterfolk, she calls them—are essentially invisible. Her only friend is King, a homeless 17-year-old who has taken it upon himself to look after her. When King takes Rain into the city to celebrate her 15th birthday, he crosses paths with Cook, a petty drug dealer, and that’s where the trouble begins. Debut novelist Kolby explores homelessness through the eyes of a teenage girl who can’t remember not living in a tent in the woods; a stripped-down narrative voice and the language of fairy tales shape Rain’s worldview. Kolby creates a believably naïve main character, but some readers may find Rain’s musings, which are often repetitive and opaque (“We step careful over the thorny blackberry branches. I clench my teeth to keep from talking to the blackberries upon blackberries, mostly fresh and waiting to rot, the rest smashed”), a barrier to fully appreciating her story. Ages 14–up. Agent: Beth Phelan, Bent Agency

November 15, 2017
A young girl living in a homeless encampment ventures into the city for the first time in years.White teen Rain lives in the Jungle: a vast homeless encampment outside of Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood. Her home is a tent she shares with her father, and she hasn't left it in five years; an old book of fairy tales is her sole, precious possession. Her father wants her to remain unseen so the authorities won't take her away. But the city has other ideas; fliers declaring the Jungle will be demolished appear overnight. No one can lawfully stay, but Rain doesn't want to leave. Her friend King, a 17-year-old racially ambiguous boy with brown skin, proposes he show her the city for her 15th birthday, the day before they must find a new home. What follows is a series of unfortunate events seen through Rain's fairy-tale-tinged perspective. Rain ends up losing track of King and unwittingly carrying a dangerous man's property in secret. Her day in the city acts as a lesson in what the outside world harbors and what she needs to learn to survive it. Narrating in a clipped, stylized first-person, present-tense voice, Rain brings an outsider's perspective to every detail she encounters, allowing readers to see them that way too, and the ending skillfully balances hard realism with hope.A thoughtful dive into a far-too-often-overlooked part of society. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Fans of Jandy Nelson and Anna-Marie McLemore's juxtapositions of the everyday with the fantastic will revel in Kolby's emotional, layered prose that has a distinctly poetic quality. Fifteen-year-old Rain lives with her father in the Jungle, a homeless community nestled in the mountains outside Seattle. Her father and the others who live in the Jungle call themselves the Winterfolk and have taught Rain that to be in the world means to be invisible. When the town hands out eviction notices to the Winterfolk, Rain and her mentor and guardian, King, venture into the confusing, harsh streets of Seattle. As Rain makes sense of societyone that is right next-door and yet utterly foreign to herher naivete allows her to see the world touched with magic and possibility instead of serving as an obstacle. Rain's haunting, endearing, unique voice will propel readers through this impressive first novel that highlights a too-often overlooked part of the population. Gorgeous, expressive magical realism from a promising debut author.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
Fifteen-year-old Rain lives with her jewelry-peddling father in a tent community outside of Seattle. When the city clears the "Winterfolk" community, Rain finds herself isolated and shoe-less in the big city, trying to find her way home or to a new safe haven. Lyrical language draws readers into Rain's distinctive worldview as she navigates the risks of homelessness in this uniquely set, thought-provoking coming-of-age story.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)