Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

By the time she is 16, Hattie has been shuffled from one relative to another, when she receives a letter telling her that she has just inherited a homestead in Montana. Having nowhere else to go, she sets out for her new home. Upon arriving in Montana, she discovers that she has only 10 months to "prove up" her claim (and thus, to be able to keep the 320 acres left to her).

What makes Hattie Big Sky unique however, is the time period. We normally think of homesteading as something that took place in the 19th century, something involving covered wagons, but in fact, it was still going on in the early twentieth century, even during the first world war. Much of Hattie's story is told through letters that she writes to her friend (okay, maybe more than a friend) Charlie, who is fighting in France. She watches first hand the discrimination that her German neighbors face.

Hattie Big Sky will appeal to fans of historical fiction (one might notice the glowing praise on the front cover that comes from Karen Cushman, author of Catherine Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice), and to those who love Little House on the Prairie* and Anne of Green Gables.

*Yes, I was one of those -- my mom started reading the Little House books to me when I was only 2 and I spent an entire summer pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder and riding around the house on my rocking horse)