Bibliographic Citation
Larson, K. (2006). Hattie big sky. New York: Delacorte Press.
Summary
Hattie is only sixteen and has lived with various relatives most of her life. She decided to go to Montana and take up her late uncle's homestead claim. She is unaware of how truely hard this life was going to be with having to finish the fence and plant 40 acres before time is up. With the help of her closest neighbors she is able to survive wolves, a snowstorm, a family trying to buy her out, death, loneliness, and just daily life. Some of her story is told through letters she writes to a boy who is across the ocean during wartimes. We really learn how life was like during these times of living in a soddy house and trying to start a homestead. Hattie is a person we can admire for being brave and working hard. She looses the homestead and has debts to pay at the end of the book. but we realize that she will survive and perhaps in time meet up with the boy she wrote all the letters to when he returns from the war.
Impressions
This book was well deserved for the Newberry Honor Award. I felt like I was right there struggling with her as I was reading.
Suggestions For Use in a Library
1. Read parts of the book to interest others in a historical type fiction book about learning how people of long ago lived.
2/. Read a chapter with every visit to the library with a quick discussion.
Reviews
Gr 6-8 -Larson relates a heartwarming yet poignant story about homesteading in early-20th-century Montana. Until the age of 16, orphan Hattie Brooks lived with whichever relative needed extra household help. Then she receives a letter telling her of an inheritance from her Uncle Chester, whom she had never met. Hattie is to receive his land claim, the house and its contents, one horse, and one cow. When she arrives from Iowa, she learns that she has 10 months to cultivate 40 acres and set 480 rods of fence, or lose the claim. While the story relates the hardships of frontier life and how Hattie "proved up" to the challenge, it also tells of World War I bigotry and discrimination toward German Americans. Hattie's sense of humor, determination, and optimism come through in her letters to her friend Charlie, who is serving in the military in France, and through letters to her Uncle Holt, which are published in his hometown newspaper. Larson's vivid descriptions of the harshness of the work and the extreme climates, and the strength that comes from true friendship, create a masterful picture of the homesteading experience and the people who persevered. Hattie's courage and fortitude are a tribute to them.
Morrison, S. (2006). Hattie big sky. School Library Journal, 52(11), 140.
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)
Hattie big sky. (2006). Kirkus Reviews, 74(17), 906.
In this 2007 Newbery Honor title set in 1918, 16 year-old orphan Hattie Brooks inherits a Montana homestead from her late uncle. She has less than one year to "prove up" the claim. Through a series of letters and first person narrative, Hattie tells her story. Potter delightfully narrates the novel, which is by turns amusing, frightening, and deeply sad. She varies her accent mildly to distinguish the characters and changes tones slightly to reflect subtle differences between Hattie the narrative and Hattie the letter writer. Potter also does a lovely interpretation of Hattie's expressive speech patterns, easily showing the teen's emotions, ranging from sad to confused. Filled with memorable characters and events, this is historical fiction at its best.
Miculek, S. (2007). Hattie big sky. Booklist, 104(1), 144.
