Hattie Big Sky

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

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

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.

(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.

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.

/*Starred 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. ((Reviewed September 1, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews

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.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

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. Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK