I'm a huge fan of Lauren Wolk's writing, but NOT a huge fan of nature, and it speaks volumes that the former is powerful enough to outweigh the latter! This reminded me of Wolf Hollow, in the best way: characters I admired and found interesting, an old-timey (and thus escapist) setting that I didn't know much about, and a main character I connected with. Another winner from Lauren Wolk.

I wasn't sure if Lauren Wolk could match the magic that is "Beyond the Bright Sea," yet she she may have actually transcended it. Depression-era literature doesn't appeal to many young readers in my library because there's not "enough action" or "it's too sad." Wolk spins a story that my most hesitant of students would read in one sitting. I cannot wait to share Ellie's story with my students this fall.

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk is a beautifully written book about how we all deal with pain and trauma and grief differently and how shared experiences can connect us in powerful ways. I also love the themes of the healing power of nature and reverence for nature found in the story. And at the heart of the story there is the healing strength and power of family. Ellie lives with her parents, an older sister and younger brother. Like many families during the Great Depression, her family lost everything and was forced to move to the backwoods of Vermont. Ellie and her father both love the woods, while her mother and older sister have struggled to let go of their previous town life. An accident has left her father in a coma, leaving Ellie to help her family navigate this hard wild life. Ellie stalwartly tries to wake her father in anyway she can by employing all her knowledge of the natural world and her unwavering hope that she can right what she feels is wrong. Her quest to wake her father leads her and her family on a journey of self discovery. Wolk is a master of building characters and place. I did not want the story to end, Ellie, her family and friends have all settled in my heart and mind.

A beautifully written story about one girls life during the Great Depression. This is both a nature story (family has moved out of the city to a mountain due to the crash) and coming of age story (Ellie learns and adapts in this environment). Powerful lessons about family love, life and finding your inner voice.
Highly recommend to middle grade readers, young adults and adults. A good story all around.

Echo Mountain is a new look into what happened so some families during the Great Depression. Learning to live on a mountain and caring for the ill without the comforts of the town of life before the Depression. Ellie is a brave character who finds a way to care for others even when she faces the blame for an accident. A beautiful story about the power of friendships, family, and our ties with the animals who choose to be a part of our lives.

Lauren Wolk's Echo Mountain is a wonderful story of hope and finding your voice. Ellie is a formidable character - full of moxie and hope to change things. Set in the Great Depression on the Maine frontier, the story follows Ellie's journey to help save her father from his coma. While some of the transitions from present to past are a bit confusing, the story is beautifully written, with great opportunity for readers to envision Ellie's world. This book tugs at your heartstrings and evokes feelings of nostalgia.

Loved it. This is a great heartfelt story that I will definitely recommend to upper elementary students. The characters are ones that will stick you.

This book is so beautifully written. I could read it again right now just to soak in the words! But the story is incredible, too, so I would have to read it a third time! Put this on your lists now!

Ellie has faced her share of challenges, not just the family move from town to mountain during the Great Depression, but also her father's coma and the blame of her family. Ellie will become your new hero in the way she works to bring her father back to the family, and the way she steps in and gets involved with others on the mountain who need her help. The reliance on others, and acceptance of those who seem different, is a powerful message for our time. With evocative writing as the icing on this story's cake.

Lauren Wolk is one of my favorite authors, and this newest title definitely lives up to her previous works! It might even be my favorite!

I sat in my house reading this book, but I felt like I was on Echo Mountain during the Great Depression. Lauren Wolk, once again, did not disappoint in this coming-of-age book that captures the sweet wildness of natural medicines and intuition. After waking a dead puppy, Ellie feels she has the knowledge to wake her father from the coma he succumbs to after a tree falls on him. Navigating what she feels she must do with what her mother forbids her from doing puts her on a path to the neighbor whom others consider the "hag" of the mountain and a way that just might wake her father from his coma.

Echo Mountain sparks the dreamer in all of us. Ellie and her family are forced to leave the comfortable town life they have always known to start over in the forests of Echo Mountain due to the Great Depression. While not everyone in the family adjusts to the change well, Ellie finds her spirit brought to life. For those who dream of the life in the woods, this story will multiple that yearning. Ellie discovers that she has a gift and must learn to follow her heart and trust what she believes. Not everyone understand her passion or desires and she learns how to navigate being true to her family while being true to herself.
The reader will find themselves so immersed in the story that it is almost like coming up for air when the book is finished. While it may be set in the past, the lessons learned are timeless. The young heroin shows that age is just a number and with perseverance and grit all things can be accomplished and dreams do come true

Echo Mountain is not action packed nor is it high adventure. If you decide not to read it because of that you will be missing out. I reviewer described this book as being wonderful in a very quiet way. That is exactly what it is.
I will definitely recommend it to anyone looking for their next favorite book.

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk is an exquisitely layered, beautifully nuanced novel set in Depression era Maine. The harshness of the mountain is perfectly aligned with the harshness of the times, but set in delicate contrast to the hopefulness of the main character, Ellie. Her father is left in a coma after an accident for which Ellie is wrongfully blamed, yet she is determined to figure out a way to wake him up and restore her family. In order to succeed in her quest for a cure, will Ellie find the strength and the voice she needs to stand up to those who doubt her and the sincerity of her intentions? Or will Ellie and her father remained in silence?

After her family loses everything during the financial crash, They move to Echo mountain to begin again, living off the land. Ellie’s sister and mother hated the mountain and their life their, unable to move past what they had to give up and leave behind. Then when Ellie’s father had a tragic accident, their hatred and resentment compounded. Ellie, on the other hand, loved the mountain. Before his accident, her father had taught her some of the ways of survival so it began to fall on Ellie to provide.
This book is rich in character and plot. I loved Ellie and her tenacity to take on whatever befell her and her family. It is a great middle grade read.

This book had so much to love! A main character with strength and cleverness. The importance of family and survival. A never give up attitude. The consideration of all people.

Lauren Wolk takes readers to Depression-era Maine with a family living on a mountain. Ellie is a strong character who has taken on a lot of responsibility after her father is injured and in a coma. Ellie meets the "old hag" who lives on the mountain and it opens up a whole new world to her. Ellie takes many chances to help those she loves. Some graphic medical issues but a wonderful read for fans of historical fiction. A unique setting and cast of characters.

(I want to thank Penguin Random House and NetGalley for letting me read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.)

Every once in a while a book comes along at exactly the right time for exactly the right audience. Lauren Wolk’s new novel “Echo Mountain” may be such a book. Her newest work is a heartwarming and hopeful tale of self-discovery, determination, and the importance of community in difficult times. Thrust into a hardscrabble existence by the Great Depression, twelve-year-old Ellie and her “newly poor” family are adjusting to living off the land in the wilds 1934 Maine. Ellie’s mother and older sister Esther resist the change and long for the comforts of town, while Ellie finds herself an “echo-girl,” embracing both sides of her life as she comes of age on the mountain.

After her father is badly injured by a falling tree, Ellie wonders if her father will ever wake from his coma and is on a mission to return him to her family. To accomplish this, Ellie knows she will have to be brave, try new things, and learn by doing. Against her mother’s admonitions, Ellie ventures up the craggy slopes searching for possible cures. Balsam sap? Skunk stink? Stinging bees? Putting a black snake in her father’s room? Nothing is off the table. What else can she try? Along the way Ellie meets Larkin, a mysterious boy who leaves her carved wooden figures, and old hag who lives in a dilapidated cabin at the top of the mountain. Ellie has to decide whether to listen to her mother’s advice and stay away from her new friends, or help heal the old woman’s suppurating leg wound. Ellie is torn between her civilized past and her growing love for the natural world with a new sense of self it kindles in her.

Wolk’s simple, yet poetic style captures both the beauty of the Maine landscape and the trials of life on the mountain. “Echo Mountain” with its vivid descriptions of puppies, adventure, and friendship also offers young readers a realistic portrait of a family finding joy in their “new normal.” This novel would be an excellent summer read. It might even inspire children to take a hike, try fishing, go camping, challenge themselves to do something new, or simply enjoy being outdoors and free to play.

Wasn't able to review before book was archived on NetGalley? 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Such a lovely book. Great for fans of survivalist fiction and historical fiction in general. The writing adds a nice distance from the horrors of gangrene.