Mountain Pose

by Nancy Hope Wilson

After her estranged grandmother's death, Ellie realizes the key to understanding her family's present strife is hidden deep in the past. Nancy Hope Wilson creates a strong, yet vulnerable heroine.

Ellie's family didn't like Grandma Aurelia - no one had even seen the cranky old woman since she showed up at Ellie's mom's funeral five years ago. Ellie hadn't given her much thought - not until the woman left her Hart Farm. Not only did Ellie inherit the farmhouse where her mother had spent summers as a girl, she got everything in it - including an old suitcase full of diaries that her grandmother requested she read. But Grandma Aurelia had never been generous, and Ellie's father thinks there is a downside to the gift. When Ellie delves into the diaries, she uncovers a dark family secret.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 26, 2001

Reviews

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

What stood out to me:
The beautiful descriptions of the Vermont landscape.
The way the author showed that family dysfunction does not have to be a never-ending “curse” ; it can be overcome.
Some of the subject matter was pretty heavy, so I think this book would be better suited for a slightly older audience than just middle-grade.

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, one of the best books I’ve read. What’s it about middle grade novels that makes the quality of the story, the characters, and the writing so good? This book contained a beautifully nuanced exploration of intergenerational trauma as experienced and perceived by adults and children. As a theme it focussed on forgiveness and the courage to trust new healthy and hopeful patterns, which were especially poignant to a reader who has firsthand understanding. Beyond that, it was an enjoyable mystery involving a very relatable 12 year old girl and her friends and family. And the Vermont setting was gorgeous, especially in the fall! A personal favourite element of this book was the very normal and understated presence of yoga in this book - just enough to contribute to the life of the character but not too much so as to have it take over the plot. Overall I found so much meaning and enjoyment in this book!

[Miss Lili · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even know...
So this is a 3.5 for me...
But I'm not sure😭
Maybe its a 4....
I really liked this book, but it was kind of confusing and seemed sort of random in some places.
So anyhow, this book is about a girl who inherits a farm from her mean old grandmother who hasn't spoken to them for years. Throughout the book she discovers her dark family history by reading old family diaries.
The ending for me wasn't very satisfactory, I wanted to know more! So I think it was a bit of a disappointment to me, especially since not too !such was happening, but I still liked it.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't very interesting.
It's just basically a girl who loves where she lives, worries a lot, afraid her life going to fall apart, and kind've doesn't care what her Dad thinks, sometimes. She just kinda thinks her opinion matters more then some.
Their deepest darkest secret is sad but not that kind've thing that you were hoping for, if that makes sense. And the father is kind've weird in how he kept his wife's ashes in a closet in his room for say 6 years.
And the name of the book has literally nothing to do with the book other then the fact that when she's frustrated or maybe afraid she'll do a yoga move called a mountain pose, but she only does it like a total of say maybe 8 times in the entire book.
Not a book I'd read again. I do not recommend wasting your time on this book.

[Laura S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this once as a teen and again as an adult. It’s a nice story and realistic to how someone may feel growing up without their mother. I appreciate the conversations about how parents (good or bad) can impact their children and can then impact how their children are as parents. For that reason I give it 4 stars, but it didn’t pull me in so I won’t read it again.

[Mary L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if the yogi "mountain pose" becomes the thing that you can count on to help you make it through the jumble of family ties, becoming a heiress, your Dad not getting tenure and a couple of other tough things just as you are about to become a teenager? Great book for almost teen girls.

[Tisha (IG: Bluestocking629) · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my! This book does not get the love I feel that it deserves.

I adored this book. No annoying teens. No annoying parents. Mystery. Family Drama. Cute but aloof cat. It checked all the boxes.

I highly recommend this book to all!!!

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I don't think anyone will read my journals after I'm dead. I record anyway. People should read their history, for this reason.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good read! Had me hooked!!

[Tasnia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think the book is bad. I totally recommend it. I think this is a good book for tweens. This book isnt too dark but has concepts that are interesting for tweens, such as (spoilers ahead) abuse (the story doesn’t get too involved in details of abuse!) and how Ellie, the main character’s uncle, has fears of being as abusive as his father, who was said to be an abusive father who drank a lot. Overall, I think Nancy hope Wilson did a great job in writing this book. I recommend trying it out!

[Portia H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic coming of age story narrated by main character, Ellie Dunklee. Mountain Pose details the struggles of a modern family with many life changing circumstances fast approaching on the heels of the death of Ellie's maternal grand-mother, Aurelia.

At first the loss is merely an inconvenience lacking the typical emotions associated with a family member's death. This is due to the estrangement endured over the years not only between Aurelia and her grand-daughter (whom she only met once at the funeral of her own daughter, Helen - Ellie's mother), but also the strained relationships going back six generations that have cycled hardships and misconceptions over the years in everyone's lives connected to Aurelia.

However, as the story unfolds, the mystery of Aurelia's will leads Ellie on a journey of discovery that stirs up a new sensitivity and protectiveness of not only her mother, who died six years earlier, but also the ancestors she has come to know and identify with through reading diaries bequeathed to her.

I enjoyed the steady flow of how this story reveals the interwoven dynamic of the past, present and future along the maternal line of a family. This is done via captured glimpses through diary entries and matched by Ellie's desire to decipher (literally and figuratively) their meaning as they pertain to her limitations of perspective based on her age and her lack of relationship with both her mother and grand-mother.

I also applaud the use of yoga as a metaphor and vehicle for aiding the character development of Ellie as she encountered understandable resistance to the unfamiliar and unknown while contending with bitterness that perhaps was not her own. Wilson captured in this story and its characters a perfect balance of perseverance that, just as in yoga practice, requires an openness of heart in order to heal.

Thank you Nancy Hope Wilson for your gift - this book came into my life exactly at the right time! I highly recommend it to anyone who loves YA books and stories that are easily relatable and just a joy to read. Well done!!!

[CrowEye · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a slow read for me. I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to, and several questions which I though was important was never answered. Because of this, I was confused on some parts. For example, how did Ellie's mom died as in what disease or sickness was she effected by. Another example would be what Aurelia did to cause so much hate because damn the hate was pretty strong but from what I've read, I thought- no offense- that it was stupid.

The most confusing parts were the diaries. They were really (REALLY) misleading! I thought they were magical since events in Ellie's life happened at the same time when she read the events that occurred in the diaries which were exactly the same. And didn't Ellis say that there was more to the diary, Aurelia's will. Seems like she forgot...

And continuing on my rant, it seems like they could've pick any pose. As in literally ANY pose. Just make it sound relaxing and soothing enough to make it sound important.

Final thing before I end it with an "otherwise I guess it was okay". The ending sounds forced. It just seemed as if they were attempting to cram as much happy endings as possible since everything till the end was depressing and negative. Like in the last chapter, before the epilogue (put a prologue then), they were all sentimental, then it's like FLUSH bye bye. There goes all that sadness! Now let's turn it into something happy. I think it was a little bit too early madam. But otherwise, I guess it was okay...

.-. not really

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

A girl named Ellie Dunklee lost her mother. So she lives with her father who has no sympathy at all. You can say he doesn't really watch over Ellie. She has to learn things on her own and she goes on a journey to find out who her mother was. She meets with aunts and uncles to see if they cab help. Ellie has it hard because she is alone in the world and has no one to lean on for help. I liked this book because it talks about how a young girl's mind expands while she goes on a journey trying to find out the other half of her identity. That missing piece in her soul is the key to her having a happy and healthy life. I liked this book because it kind of relates to teens the same age who lose their mother and half to live with a single parent who shows no affection at all.

[Dotty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Ellie is an heiress. Her hard-hearted, cruel grandmother has left an old Vermont farm in trust and a set of diaries for Ellie. This grandmother almost ruined Ellie’s mother’s life. Ellie’s father wants nothing to do with the farm but Ellie is interested in the diaries. She hopes to learn more about her mother who died when Ellie was only five. Some of the diaries are in code or shorthand.

Ellie is exploring the farm, reading the diaries and is beginning to piece together the horror of the past six generations, family secrets that both fascinate and frighten her.

[Ms.]

this book is a story about a girl named Ellie and her mom has died and her grandma Aurelia who never saw them and was extremely mean. Aurelia dies and in her will she gives Ellie the hart farm which has bean past down from generation to generation. Aurelia also requested that Ellie reads a suitcase of journals. Ellie learns a family dark secret from the journals and learns to forgive Aurelia for not being a grandma.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story made me wish I had kept up with my diary as a child! I thought my life was so boring with nothing to write about, but I would be interested, for my children's sake, at how we entertained ourselves without video games and electronics.

This was a realistic book in the sense that the author took a reality for many families and created a fictional story. I recommend this book for everyone ages 11+.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because it had so much potential. There were really interesting, richly developed characters, and so many possible plot twists... and none of them ever happened. There are so many loose ends and so many plotlines that just fizzle and die. I was pretty disappointed at the ending, or lack thereof. But until the last chapter or two, I enjoyed this pretty well.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Back when our book club began we had a few school teachers in there and some of them would pick their favorite young adult books that they liked to recommend to their students. This was one such book. Since I can't remember that much of it I will only give it two stars.

[Nadia Trigoso]

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in things that people least expect. There are many surprises that no one will predict will happen in the future. If you aren't a person that likes big surprises in a book, you might not want to read this book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book that is fun to read and makes u want to keep reading

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nice story about family and friends. I really liked it!

[Avie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so touching....also because i read it at a crucial point in my life i think.