Part 2: Wrapping it up with Hattie

I met with my young 'student' today to wind up our adventure into reading Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. We agreed that we liked Hattie and enjoyed her story. 

Before we could truly close the covers on Hattie, though, we each wrote a five-sentence summary of the book. My summary addressed the hardships that Hattie faced and how she dealt with so many obstacles. However, Sue, focused her summary more on Hattie's relationship with the Mueller family, her neighbors.

I found that interesting. We talked about the differences in what we each considered the main idea of the book. Whereas I enjoy books that are plot driven, she likes the exploration of the characters and how they relate to each other.

We then wrote a short piece about our feelings toward Hattie. Once again, I admired Hattie's perseverance and resourcefulness in facing obstacles and her courage in reinventing herself, while Sue was impressed by her big heart in caring for the neighbor family when the influenza epidemic struck. 

Well, there you have it...the reason there are as many types of books as there are readers and perhaps why there are so many book club members who gather to discuss plots and characters and share their points of view.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Hattie Inez Brooks is an orphan who has been shuttled from relative to relative until, at the age of 16, she learns she has inherited her Uncle Chester's homestead claim in Montana. The year is 1917 and Hattie, tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, sets off from Iowa to make a home for herself. 

Her inheritance consists of a one-room shack, a barn, half a chicken coop and 320 acres of land that need to be fenced. Forty acres must be planted with wheat and flax before she can actually own the claim. She has nine months to 'prove up' the homestead. 

Hattie Big Sky is a great story by Kirby Larson of a young woman's work and determination to make a go of this hardscrabble life. She braves blizzards, bullies, blisters, and helps birth a baby. There are disease, devastation, disappointment, and a stubborn milk cow to contend with.  But through it all, Hattie learns self-reliance, the importance of loyal friendship between isolated homesteaders, and best of all, she finally learns to make bread that isn't heavy as an iron skillet.

Some of her experiences are told through letters to her friend Charlie, a soldier serving in France during World War I. She also shares tales of her hardships and happy times in newspaper articles that are published in the paper back in Iowa. 

I really liked Hattie. I was in awe of her strength, good sense, and sticktoittiveness. Reading about her life made me grateful for my own indoor bathroom, running water, and washing machine. I have no outdoor 'necessary', no well to pump, and no water to boil on a wood stove to fill the wash tub.  I don't have to milk a cow every morning or spend hot days clearing rocks out of a field or chase wolves off my property.

From Hattie, I learned a lot about what early settlers in America's West had to deal with. And, most of all, I learned I probably wouldn't have made a very good pioneer woman.

Picturing Pioneer Days

Miss Kitty and the boys of Gunsmoke

Here's the thing: I grew up watching television shows such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Have Gun...Will Travel. This means that I have a lot of back-ground information about The West and what went on in the pioneer days. All of that is coming in handy in reading Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson with my friend's 8th grade daughter. The story takes place in Montana in 1918 and this student doesn't have much knowledge about that time in American history.

This means she doesn't know how to picture in her mind spurs, a sod house, a wash bucket, calico, a prairie dog, or a stitched sampler. All things mentioned in the book.

They don't make Westerns any more (and if they did they would be so violent I wouldn't recommend watching them), so she has no references to that time in history. Is that part of our heritage disappearing?

I suggested she rent the DVD Sarah, Plain and Tall based on the book by Patricia MacLachlan, to get an idea of what Hattie was having to deal with - blizzards, wolves, horse-drawn wagons, barbed wire fences, and wood stoves. Or maybe she could watch one of the Little House DVDs.

If any of you, dear readers, have suggestions as to a movie or TV show that might help her fill in some of the blanks, I would be happy to hear about them.

Thanking you in advance!

Hattie Here-and-There

She thinks of herself as Hattie Here-and-There. That's because, after her parents died when she was young, she was shuffled from one relative to another - never settling in one place for long.  At age 13 she moves in with Uncle Holt (really a distant cousin) and Aunt Ivy. For three years she is at the mercy of the rather unkind and bossy Ivy.

Then things begin to look up.

A real uncle (her mother's brother) has died and left Hattie his 320-acre homestead in Montana. Hattie, now 16, leaves Iowa and sets her sights west to, like so many others, make a home for herself.

Such is the tale that takes place in 1918 as told in Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. The story is based on the homesteading experiences of the author's great-grandmother. 

I am reading about Hattie along with a young woman who is going into the eighth grade and is not too fond of reading. Her mother and I are hoping that having someone to talk to about the story will help her to become enamored with the saga of Hattie. 

Just a few chapters in, I already am loving this book. For someone so young, Hattie is brave to take on such an enormous responsibility alone but it is just that "backbone" that her deceased Uncle Chester was counting on when he left her the homestead. 

The author has given Hattie an engaging voice and manages to paint a picture of life in that part of America against the backdrop of World War I. For example, here is a list of the supplies Hattie buys her first day in Wolf Point, the town that is thirty miles from her new home:

one-quarter barrel of wheat flour
25 pounds of sugar (this is rationed due to the war)
15 pounds cornmeal
20 pounds of coffee
kerosene 
raisins and other dried fruits
a tin of loose tea
tinned meats and canned goods
assorted spices

I can't imagine having to travel 30 miles to do my shopping and having to buy groceries in those quantities.  

Anyway, we will just have to see how Hattie handles her new life in Big Sky Montana. I have a feeling she will do just fine.