YA
Larson, Kirby. 2006. HATTIE BIG SKY. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0385733135
PLOT SUMMARY - ANALYSIS
When Hattie receives a letter, her life changes. Her uncle has left her a land claim in Montana. It can be hers if she can build a fence, raise a crop, and sustain her animals. This beautifully written book invites so many people into the life of the once orphaned, Hattie. Her neighbors become her family and she grows up in this book learning how to live alone, stand up for her friends, and become a part of a community.
In this piece of historical fiction, Larson explores her great-grandmother’s adventures in Montana using primary documents like local diaries, homesteading paperwork, and land management records. “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” (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 17))
Hattie is given a daunting task for a sixteen year-old girl in the early 1900s – to travel alone and take over her uncle’s working farm. In the first ten pages of the book, the relationship with her Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt is established, as well as her sad life as an orphan being passed from relative to relative. As Hattie is leaving for Montana she says “I pushed all doubts and worries away the moment they crept into my thoughts. All I could see was the chance to leave Aunt Ivy and that feeling of being the one odd sock behind” (page 10).
The setting of the tough Montana plains along with epidemics like drought and the Spanish influenza make this novel an emotional read. Hattie becomes so much more than just a new farmer trying to prove her worth in this barren land, she becomes a true neighbor, an adopted aunt and the defender of friends no matter what the consequence. With the war, people had become suspicious of all people of German descent. This part of the plot plays on the time in history where people were afraid of anything different, so Hattie’s relationship with Perilee’s husband, Karl who is German, is a vital part of this story. Hattie befriends this family and will not exclude Karl because of his heritage.
Through Hattie’s written correspondence to her friend, Charlie, serving in the military in World War I, the reader gets a view of Hattie’s eternal optimism. In Hattie’s letters to her Uncle Holt, she shows her more vulnerable side of living alone and working hard to make a go of the farm. Finally her column in The Arlington News, gives more of a historical look at social norms and the female role in this time period. All of these letters inserted throughout the book give the reader access to the many dimensions of Hattie’s character.
Even though Hattie’s adventure in Montana ended differently than she had hoped, she claims that “I did find a home in my year on the prairie. I found one in my own skin. And in the hearts of the people I met” (page 283).
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist starred 09/01/06
Notable Best Books (ALA) 01/01/07
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books 03/01/07
School Library Journal starred 11/01/06
Horn Book 04/01/07
Wilson’s Junior High School 08/01/07
Newberry Medal Honor 01/22/07
Wilson’s Senior High School 10/01/07
CONNECTIONS
Myers, Anna. 1996. FIRE IN THE HILLS. New York: Walker and Co. ISBN 9780802784216
· Partner this as a sixteen year-old head of household in 1918 Oklahoma
Larson, Kirby. 2010. THE FENCES BETWEEN US: THE DIARY OF PIPER DAVIS: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 1941. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 9780545224185
· Partner this as a WWII story of a young girl living with friends who are deemed foreign
George, Jean Craighead. 1988. MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. New York: Dutton.
ISBN 9780525443926
· Partner this book as a male heroine who lives off the land in the Catskill Mountains
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