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Summary
Summary
Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim. For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends--especially Charlie, fighting in France--through letters and articles for her hometown paper. Her backbreaking quest for a home is lightened by her neighbors, the Muellers. But she feels threatened by pressure to be a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships with folks of German descent. Despite everything, Hattie's determined to stay until a tragedy causes her to discover the true meaning of home.
Reviews (5)
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) Near the end of World War I, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks sets out for eastern Montana, aiming to ""prove up"" the homestead claim her late uncle left her in his will. Greenhorn Hattie slowly becomes part of the prairie community, no longer Hattie Here-and-There but Hattie Big Sky. Heavy-handed messages (mostly regarding vigilante patriotism and discrimination against German Americans) weigh down Hattie's otherwise compelling and affecting story, filled with details of the WWI homefront and homestead life. Narrator Potter inhabits Hattie so fully that the listener will feel her blisters as she tries to lay down enough fence and harvest enough flax to prove her claim. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Hattie, 16, is thousands of miles away from the battlefield but fights her own sort of war against fear, prejudice, and the harshness of the elements in 1918 Montana. The plucky heroine's first-person narrative is interspersed with newsy articles she writes for the local paper and letters to her friend Charlie, who is fighting somewhere in Europe. Audio version available from Random House Audio. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Against the backdrop of WWI, 16-year old orphan Hattie sets out from Iowa to take up her late uncle's homestead claim in Montana; a Newbery Honor book. Ages 12-up. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this engaging historical novel set in 1918, 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks leaves Iowa and travels to a Montana homestead inherited from her uncle. In the beautiful but harsh setting, she has less than a year to fence and cultivate the land in order to keep it. Neighbors who welcome Hattie help heal the hurt she has suffered from years of feeling unwanted. Chapters open with short articles that Hattie writes for an Iowa newspaper or her lively letters to a friend and possible beau who is in the military in France. The authentic first-person narrative, full of hope and anxiety, effectively portrays Hattie's struggles as a young woman with limited options, a homesteader facing terrible odds, and a loyal citizen confused about the war and the local anti-German bias that endangers her new friends. Larson, whose great-grandmother homesteaded alone in Montana, read dozens of homesteaders' journals and based scenes in the book on real events. Writing in figurative language that draws on nature and domestic detail to infuse her story with the sounds, smells, and sights of the prairie, she creates a richly textured novel full of memorable characters. --Kathleen Odean Copyright 2006 Booklist
Kirkus Review
What dreams would lead a 16-year-old to leave her safe home in Arlington, Iowa, and take a chance on a homestead claim in Montana? Hattie Brooks, an orphan, is tired of being shuttled between relatives, tired of being Hattie Here-and-There and the feeling of being the "one odd sock behind." So when Uncle Chester leaves her his Montana homestead claim, she jumps at the chance for independence. It's 1918, so this is homesteading in the days of Model Ts rather than covered wagons, a time of world war, Spanish influenza and anti-German sentiment turning nasty in small-town America. Hattie's first-person narrative is a deft mix of her own accounts of managing her claim, letters to and from her friend Charlie, who is off at war, newspaper columns she writes and even a couple of recipes. Based on a bit of Larson's family history, this is not so much a happily-ever-after story as a next-year-will-be-better tale, with Hattie's new-found definition of home. This fine offering may well inspire readers to find out more about their own family histories. (acknowledgments, author's note, further reading) (Fiction. 12-15) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
December 19, 1917 Arlington, Iowa Dear Charlie, Miss Simpson starts every day with a reminder to pray for you--and all the other boys who enlisted. Well, I say we should pray for the Kaiser--he's going to need those prayers once he meets you! I ran into your mother today at Uncle Holt's store. She said word is you are heading for England soon, France after that. I won't hardly be able to look at the map behind Miss Simpson's desk now; it will only remind me of how far you are from Arlington. Mr. Whiskers says to tell you he's doing fine. It's been so cold, I've been letting him sleep in my bedroom. If Aunt Ivy knew, she'd pitch a fit. Thank goodness she finally decided I was too big to switch or my legs would be striped for certain. You should see Aunt Ivy. She's made herself a cunning white envelope of a hat with a bright red cross stitched on the edge. She wears it to all the Red Cross meetings. Guess she wants to make sure everybody knows she's a paid-up member. She's been acting odd lately; even asked me this morning how was I feeling. First time in years she's inquired about my health. Peculiar. Maybe this Red Cross work has softened her heart. Mildred Powell's knitting her fifth pair of socks; they're not all for you, so don't get swell-headed. She's knitting them for the Red Cross. All the girls at school are. But I suspect the nicest pair she knits will be for you. You must cut quite the figure in your uniform. A figure eight! (Ha, ha.) Seriously, I am certain you are going to make us all proud. Aunt Ivy's home from her meeting and calling for me. I'll sign off now but will write again soon. Your school friend, Hattie Inez Brooks I blotted the letter and slipped it in an envelope. Aunt Ivy wouldn't think twice about reading anything she found lying around, even if it was in my own room, on my own desk. "Hattie," Aunt Ivy called again. "Come down here!" To be on the safe side, I slipped the envelope under my pillow, still damp from my good cry last night. Not that I was like Mildred Powell, who hadn't stopped boo-hooing since Charlie left. Only Mr. Whiskers and my pillow knew about my tears in the dark over Charlie. I did fret over his safety, but it was pure and sinful selfishness that wet my eyes at night. In all my sixteen years, Charlie Hawley was one of the nicest things to happen to me. It was him who'd stuck up for me when I first came to live with Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt, so shy I couldn't get my own name out. He'd walked me to school that very first day and every day after. Charlie was the one who'd brought me Mr. Whiskers, a sorry-looking tomcat who purred his way into my heart. The one who'd taught me how to pitch, and me a southpaw. So maybe I did spend a night now and then dreaming silly girl dreams about him, even though everyone knew he was sweet on Mildred. My bounce-around life had taught me that dreams were dangerous things--they look solid in your mind, but you just try to reach for them. It's like gathering clouds. The class had voted to see Charlie off at the station. Mildred clung to his arm. His father clapped him on the back so often, I was certain he'd end up bruised. Miss Simpson made a dull speech as she presented Charlie with a gift from the school: a wool stocking cap and some stationery. "Time to get aboard, son," the conductor called. Something shifted in my heart as Charlie swung his foot up onto the train steps. I had told myself to hang back--didn't want to be lumped in with someone like Mildred--but I found myself running up to him and slipping something in his hand. "For luck!" I said. He glanced at the object and smiled. With a final wave, he boarded the train. "Oh, Charlie!" Mildred leaned on Mrs. Hawley and sobbed. "There, there." Charlie's mother patted Mildred's back. Mr. Hawley took a bandanna from his pocket and made a big show of wiping his forehead. I pretended not to notice that he dabbed at his eyes, too. The others made their way slowly down the platform, back to their cars. I stood watching the train a bit longer, picturing Charlie patting the pocket where he'd placed the wishing stone I'd given him. He was the one who'd taught me about those, too. "Look for the black ones," he'd told me. "With the white ring around the middle. If you throw them over your left shoulder and make a wish, it's sure to come true." He threw his wishing rocks with abandon and laughed at me for not tossing even one. My wish wasn't the kind that could be granted by wishing rocks. And now two months had passed since Charlie stepped on that train. With him gone, life was like a batch of biscuits without the baking powder: flat, flat, flat. "Hattie!" Aunt Ivy's voice was a warning. "Yes, ma'am!" I scurried down the stairs. She was holding court in her brown leather chair. Uncle Holt was settled into the hickory rocker, a stack of news- papers on his lap. I slipped into the parlor and picked up my project, a pathetic pair of socks I'd started back in October when Charlie enlisted. If the war lasted five more years, they might actually get finished. I held them up, peering through a filigree of dropped stitches. Not even a good chum like Charlie could be expected to wear these. "I had a lovely visit with Iantha Wells today." Aunt Ivy unpinned her Red Cross hat. "You remember Iantha, don't you, Holt?" "Hmmm." Uncle Holt shook the newspaper into shape. "I told her what a fine help you were around here, Hattie." I dropped another stitch. To hear her tell it most days, there was no end to my flaws in the domesticity department. "I myself never finished high school. Not any sense in it for some girls." Uncle Holt lowered one corner of the paper. I dropped another stitch. Something was up. "No sense at all. Not when there's folks like Iantha Wells needing help at her boardinghouse." There. It was out. Now I knew why she had been so kind to me lately. She'd found a way to get rid of me. Excerpted from Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.