The Wolf Hour by Sara Lewis Holmes

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R.M. Romero.

Ms. Holmes gives us a story of pigs (three little ones plus a mama pig), wolves, and a girl with a red cap, fusing together the folklore of the Polish forest, the Puszcza, with the tales of the city, of magic flutes and stolen, enchanted girls. It’s a book that talks about the roles we are expected to fill and the changes that we can make if we have the courage to do so. Girls are not supposed to be woodcutters, but Magia, the red-capped girl, knows that becoming a woodcutter like her father is what she is meant to be. And wolves are meant to be the villains of the story, but what if the little pigs are the real tricksters and bad guys, luring the wolves to their doom?

Actually, I thought the setting for this story was somewhere in a magical Poland, but maybe it’s Ukraine or even Russia. Wherever it is set, the tale is dark and creepy but with just enough humor and lightness that it’s perfectly appropriate for middle grade readers who like a bit of scariness and suspense mixed into their fantasy reading. Fans of the TV series Once Upon a Time or Grimm might take to this twisted version of fairy tale world.

The Dollmaker of Krakow is partially set in Poland, World War II Poland, but also in a mythical Kingdom of the Dolls where events mirror to some extent the event in Poland. The evil rats have invaded the Land of the Dolls and enslaved all of the dolls, so when the doll Karolina tries to escape, she finds herself blown the wind into World War II Poland and living in the shop of the The Dollmaker. Karolina and the man known as the Dollmaker become friends with a Jewish violinist, Jozef, and his daughter, Rena, and from that friendship come danger and an opportunity to influence the course of events both in our world and in the Land of the Dolls.

Again, it’s a Holocaust tale, so it’s dark and rather scary, but there is a sense of hope that one person—or one doll— can be brave enough and persevering enough to make a difference and shine some light into that darkness.
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