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| View Larger Image | Hattie Big Sky (Readers Circle)
by Kirby Larson
| | List Price: | $8.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 2881 | | Studio: | Delacorte Books for Young Readers | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Reading Level: | Young Adult | | Number Of Pages: | 320 | | Publication Date: | December 26, 2007 | | Publisher: | Delacorte Books for Young Readers |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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.
From the Hardcover edition. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 33 reviews)
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Best historical fiction I've read in 10 years. 
A really sweet story with twists and turns. The story is told through the eyes of an independent 16 year old girl. It made me appreciate homesteaders, Montana, and what Americans faced during WWI. Even though it will make you laugh AND cry, there is an ending of hope. I bought 2 more copies to give as gifts to friends who enjoy historical fiction. Good for all ages above 12 years.
June 03, 2008 | |
A Wonderful Read
I purchased this book without really knowing much about it. However, as I began reading the story I became thoroughly engrossed and just wanted to keep reading. I am not normally a fan of historical fiction, but the author did a wonderful job of taking the reader into the story, and making it feel like you were right there with Hattie as she struggled to find herself and to learn how to homestead. The author does a great job of painting a picture without overemphasizing any aspect or beleaguering points.
Some reviews have disparaged the way the author decided to end the story, saying that it wasn't true to her grandmother's story. However, I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Kirby Larson at a Childrens' Literature Conference and she explained that while the story was inspired by her grandmother...it was not her grandmother's story. Even without the author's explanation, I thought the ending was wonderful. A true happy ending that is was not unrealistic. I put the book down with a huge smile on my face and a realization that I had fallen in love with this book and the story. It is a must read and thoroughly deserves the awards it has received.
March 22, 2008 | |
Hattie Big Sky
For upper elementary school children who are studying American history this gives a vivid picture of what Montana was like for homesteaders. The story is captivating yet eye opening. It is easy to forget the attitudes of early settlers toward Germans during WWI. The vocaulary is good, some new words, yet not too many.
February 22, 2008 | |
No way does this deserve a Newbery Award 
I waited for a very long time until I finally found Hattie Big Sky at the library. Hearing some very good reviews and reading the general synopsis for the book, I was excited about reading this story. And now, once again, I'm going to veer from what everyone else has said and give my part.
Hattie Big Sky follows the story of Hattie, who catches some luck when her uncle, Chester Brooks, unexpectedly sends her a will deeming her the sole owner of some new land in Montana. This is particularly fortunate because Hattie, orphaned very young, was on the brink of having to work at a boarding house. The story basically follows her path and journey in making her home her own.
First of all, kudos to the author for keeping everything clean. I do greatly respect that.
Now, the bad part. Hattie is a little too perfect for my taste. I'm not saying I wanted her to break out and rob someone or anything, but like many stories I'm so tired of reading because of the protagonists' syrupy sweetness, this made her extremely dull. At several points in the story, Hattie makes a remark that if her aunt could only see her, she would have been disapproving. This made me flip back and go disapproving of what? One of the times, the author did make the source clear and the others were just kind of thrown in. So Hattie's constantly saying I'm doing things people won't like and none of the things she's doing really seem wrong at all. And I don't get the impression it was about her taking care of her home all alone...
Then of course there is Hattie's quicksilver change of feelings that I believe was a mistake on the author's part. She contradicts herself constantly, saying she feels a certain way and then two paragraphs later the author writes something going against that.
----SPOILER----
Hattie is asked to sell her land right after a kind of heat spell as if the person is too eager to wait until she isn't weak. Her first reaction is anger, and the author verifies this. "I fought down the hot anger boiling up in my stomach..." This one is not as contradictory as some others, but she quickly changes her feelings, going from anger to, oh, he's so right. She immediately, only a sentence later, begins to take on another thought process entirely. I should really be thankful he's doing this...yadayadayada...This was annoying.
----END SPOILER----
I think all characters should be rock solid in their development. Hattie seems too vacillating when it comes to her own choices and is too good, which I hate hearing and saying, but it's true.
Continuing on a note of characterization, I also found major problems with the character of Perilee, who quickly becomes friends with Hattie. I kind of felt like I was reading a Stepford Wives-Little House on the Prairie blending. Perilee is also too perfect, although her character remains one-dimensional the whole story. She mentions horrible things that happened in her past and stays absolutely, sickly pleasant about it all. Also, at times she seems overly kind and childish. I don't know why. She wasn't developed enough.
Perilee's husband (And I just knew they'd have something like this.), Karl, who just so happens to be a foreigner and living in Montana during World War I, is generically ostracized and is thrown through the usual torment of these types of characters, mainly there, I am beginning to think, to fill in the empty pages that needed filling. Everyone in the town refuses to help or even be seen with his family...blah, blah, blah. I'm so tired of this type of plotline that I didn't even care; plus, he wasn't very well written either.
My biggest problem with this story was the way everything flashes by so fast. Hattie mentions some major hurdles, like moving across several states just to reach Montana, having to learn, after living in the city, how to plant and care for all of the inherited land by herself, building a fence that reaches regulations, and farming her land. But each of these problems never lasts long and is quickly done away with. Hattie's journey to Montana is barely even mentioned; she arrives to a house that looks more like a shed and that fades away. She states that she knows nothing about farming, gets some manuals on the subject and only a paragraph later is an expert...Nothing is ever drawn out. Also, she has money problems which, like everything else, is resolved immediately. This became so annoying to me that I wanted to jump into the story and strangle the main character. Basically, following Kirby Larson's writing, homesteading seems very simple, more than simple, child's play...I say, if you're making a point of writing a story about a young girls' difficulty in surviving and raising her own land, there needs to be some evidence, not the miraculous sponge that Hattie turned out to be, reading and using her read knowledge with precision.
It sounds like I hated this book and after writing this review and reviewing the many issues, I almost do, but not quite. I am just very picky about everything, from plotlines to miniscule details. While Hattie's character was too nice, she was not unlikable, and while I didn't take too much of a shine to the story it was okay. I did feel like I wanted to keep reading although most of the time I was frustrated and wondering just where exactly I've heard this story before, finding familiar, overly-used elements that have been written much better over the years...
Overall: Okay read, nothing worth a Newbery, which I find incredibly hard to believe and almost impossible to believe; but the facts speak for themselves. I would not have read this if I knew beforehand what it would turn out to be like, nor would I recommend it. Waste of time.
August 05, 2007 | |
Fall into the time period!
Within the first few pages I felt like I was right back in 1918 Montana. Enjoyable book, well written.
July 01, 2007 | |
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