Hattie Big Sky

Larson, K. (2006). Hattie Big Sky. New York: Delacorte Press.

 

I loved this book.  It's the story of an orphan teen from the midwest who inherits an uncle's claim on some land in Montana, so she goes out and stakes her claim.  My daughter had been trying to get me to read this, and I finally had an excuse to do it.  I ended up passing it to my mother, who also enjoyed it.  My mother is from Montana, and her grandmother staked a claim as a single woman in Montana around the same time (World War I) as Hattie in the book.  I had always heard the stories of Lena Gundersen coming from Norway and working the railroad as a cook, then living on her own in a sod house with her pit bull, so my thoughts went to her as I read about Hattie's struggles to survive and earn her land.  My only complaint about the book is that the ending feels really abrupt - it just sort of  ends, and leaves several loose ends dangling.  I hope the author writes a sequel.  This is a great novel for girls - strong heroine, who not only faces Mother Nature and the Montana winter, but discrimination as well.