Hattie Big Sky

Hattie Big Sky was a 2007 Newbery Honor Book written by Kirby Larson. In the book Hattie is a 16 year old girl in 1918, who was left a Montana homestead by an uncle she never met. She was eager to have a place of her own after years of referring to herself as Hattie Here-and-There because after her parents died when she was very young she was moved from one place to another without setting down roots anywhere. This novel spans just under a year as she tries to prove up her claim and keep her 320 acres.

There are some passages that I thought were well written, but the mark of a great book for me is when I have a hard time putting it down. I never had a hard time being drawn away, although I did like the book. Hattie is determined and a hard worker. I could not put myself in her place to live alone out in the middle of nowhere, working the land, and doing all the chores myself as she did. She learns the meaning of family and how cruel people can be towards others who were born on foreign soil.

Here are a few of the passages that "spoke" to me:
"I feel as if I need to make up a new alphabet to be able to create the words that would summon up the stew of smells out here. I've learned not to take too deep a whiff when mucking out the barn, but most of the smells are good, wonderful, and hopeful, if smells can be such a thing." p. 100

After losing part of her harvest to hail here are her thoughts, "As I thanked my neighbors at the end of the day, I felt as if I was at a funeral. And in a way it was. A funeral for a dream. How could months of work be destroyed in a few minutes?" p. 241

"There should be fireworks, at least, when a dream dies. But no, this one had blown apart as easily as a dandelion gone to seed." p. 267

This book does not have a happily-ever-after ending, but fitting for the hard life that was attempted by so many who had dreams similar to Hattie's.