The Hermit of Fog Hollow Station

by David Roth

Lonely after his family moves from Boston to the country, 12-year-old Alex befriends an old hermit. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0825300126
• ISBN13: 9780825300127
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Beaufort Books
• Length: 96 Pages
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

A lost old man and an outcast young boy find common ground

Two outsiders meet in this book. Alex is a boy in middle school who just moved into a new house and misses his former best friend. Old man Turner is a man who lives by himself in a primitive house with no electricity or phone. Two ruffian boys (Benny and Fritz) coax Alex into going with them to fish in a pond on Turner's property. They tell Alex that he is a vicious man, who has killed young boys for food, so that if Turner comes out, they must run for their lives. Turner sees them and starts running towards them. One of the boys throws rocks at him and hits Turner on the shoulder. He suddenly has what appears to be a heart attack and falls in the water. While the other two boys run away, Alex runs back and pulls Turner from the water. He then runs as fast as he can for help, summoning an ambulance and the chief of police. The chief has no difficulty guessing who the other two boys were and even though Alex tells him nothing, Benny and Fritz tell everyone that Alex ratted them out. This leads to Alex being ostracized in his school, which makes his life miserable. However, he goes to visit Turner in the hospital, sneaking in against the orders of a nurse. After Turner gets out of the hospital, Alex goes to see Turner and they begin a friendship. Turner is clearly a man with a broken heart, unable to face life like he used too. Alex provides him with some companionship and Turner loans Alex a copy of Thoreau's "Walden" to read. This, along with a fishing trip and other events, forms a bond between them. The final link is when Turner and Alex go to a place where Turner has buried a box containing personal letters, photos and other memorabilia. Benny and Fritz think it contains money and they steal it from Turner. In a fury, Alex tracks them down and wielding a formidable stick scares them away and retrieves the contents of the box. As is fitting, Turner wills the box to Alex and it is Alex who discovers that Turner has died. At the end, Alex is pondering the joyous times he had with old man Turner, realizing that he is changed forever, and there will always be sounds that will remind him of what has passed between them. This is a book describing one of the many ways that a young boy can be changed for the better by his contact with an old man. There are so many ways we can learn valuable lessons in our youth that it is easy to overlook how valuable simple contact can be between two people where a generation is skipped. This book is an excellent reminder of that fact.