The Hollow Tree
First edition | |
Author | Janet Lunn |
---|---|
Cover artist | Seal Books |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's historical novel |
Publisher | Knopf Canada |
Publication date | 1997 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Preceded by | Shadow on Hawthorne Bay |
The Hollow Tree is a 1997 children's historical novel by Janet Lunn. The book is the third in a trilogy, the first two being The Root Cellar and Shadow in Hawthorn Bay. Having progressed backward from the American Civil War in The Root Cellar, another few decades in Shadow in Hawthorn Bay, The Hollow Tree takes place during the starting of the American Revolution in 1777.
The main character, Phoebe Olcott, is mentioned briefly in Shadow in Hawthorn Bay as "Phoebe Morrisay," having married Jem Morrisay. Phoebe's suitor, Ben Larkin, is implied to be an ancestor to Rose Larkin, the protagonist of The Root Cellar, while the Morrissay family's descendants would include Will Morrisay, who also appears in The Root Cellar.
Plot overview
Plump little Phoebe Olcott is a timid but helpful 15-year-old girl, admired by her father's students for her quiet temperament and stubbornness. After her father, a schoolteacher, is killed in action while fighting as an American Patriot (commonly known as Rebels) in the quick revolution, she ends up living with her aunt's family, who happen to be Loyalist.
Phoebe continues to hide in the shadows of her cousins Gideon and Anne Robinson until Gideon becomes a British soldier. When he is suddenly found hanged, Phoebe discovers that Gideon was actually a spy and finds a list of names that was entrusted to Gideon and must be delivered to Fort Ticonderoga.
She arrives at Fort Ticonderoga too late; the post has been abandoned. Instead, she finds a bear and a cat and meets Jem Morrissay, whose family happens to be one of the names on the list entrusted to Gideon. Phoebe and Jem form an uneasy relationship and she is reunited with her family and several other Loyalist families fleeing to Upper Canada to avoid persecution by the Patriots.
During the flight of the Loyalists, they capture Japhet Oram, a Loyalist soldier, and are uncertain if he is a deserter or a rebel spy. The leader of the group insists that the soldier be taken to Canada and hanged. When Phoebe's own convictions, background, and morals clash with the more radical of the Loyalists, she soon finds herself isolated from the rest of the group. She secretly cuts Japhet loose and runs away, but is pursued by Jem.
Despite their growing attraction to one another, Phoebe refuses to return to the other Loyalists with Jem. Forced to continue alone, Phoebe begins her dangerous journey to Canada in order to escape the revolution and fulfil Gideon's final mission.
See also
- American Revolution
References
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- Morgan Nyberg, Galahad Schwartz and the Cockroach Army (1987)
- Welwyn Wilton Katz, The Third Magic (1988)
- Diana Wieler, Bad Boy (1989)
- Michael Bedard, Redwork (1990)
- Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks (1991)
- Julie Johnston, Hero of Lesser Causes (1992)
- Tim Wynne-Jones, Some of the Kinder Planets (1993)
- Julie Johnston, Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me (1994)
- Tim Wynne-Jones, The Maestro (1995)
- Paul Yee, Ghost Train (1996)
- Kit Pearson, Awake and Dreaming (1997)
- Janet Lunn, The Hollow Tree (1998)
- Rachna Gilmore, A Screaming Kind of Day (1999)
- Deborah Ellis, Looking for X (2000)
- Arthur Slade, Dust (2001)
- Martha Brooks, True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (2002)
- Glen Huser, Stitches (2003)
- Kenneth Oppel, Airborn (2004)
- Pamela Porter, The Crazy Man (2005)
- William Gilkerson, Pirate's Passage (2006)
- Iain Lawrence, Gemini Summer (2007)
- John Ibbitson, The Landing (2008)
- Caroline Pignat, Greener Grass: The Famine Years (2009)
- Wendy Phillips, Fishtailing (2010)
- Christopher Moore, From Then to Now: A Short History of the World (2011)
- Susin Nielsen, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (2012)
- Teresa Toten, The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B (2013)
- Raziel Reid, When Everything Feels Like the Movies (2014)
- Caroline Pignat, The Gospel Truth (2015)
- Martine Leavitt, Calvin (2016)
- Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (2017)
- Jonathan Auxier, Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster (2018)
- Erin Bow, Stand on the Sky (2019)
- Eric Walters, The King of Jam Sandwiches (2020)
- Philippa Dowding, Firefly (2021)
- Jen Ferguson, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (2022)
- Sarah Everett, The Probability of Everything (2023)
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