The Boy from Hollow Hut

A stranger’s watch gives twelve-year-old Steve his first clear glimpse of a world beyond the Kentucky mountains. Accustomed to roaming the woods with his aging dog, Tige, the boy is astonished by Samuel Polk’s clothes, food and quick speech. The watch’s small moving wheels draw his eager questions, and Polk’s promise to send him one turns a chance meeting into an opening toward new possibilities.

Isla May Mullins follows Steve’s growing ambitions in a novel for young readers that places schooling beside business success. As he grows older, he studies geology and mining engineering while his foster-parents imagine different futures for him. Mr. Polk sees a role in developing mountain resources with northern investment; Mrs. Polk hopes for someone who will help mountain children reach school. Their competing hopes bring questions of opportunity, gratitude and service into a story for readers interested in how education can change a life and deepen obligations to home.