Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Genre: Historical Fiction
Themes: Survival, Tolerance, Coming of Age
Grade Level: 6-8
Curricular Connections: Social Studies (Homesteaders in Eastern Montana, World War I)

Hattie, orphaned at a young age, has spent her early years being shuffled from one distant relative to another giving herself the title, Hattie Here and There. At age 16, she receives a letter from her late Uncle Chester, naming her the heir to his Montana claim as well as his house, and a horse and a cow. With dreams of finally having a place to call her own, she packs up her few belongings, all her courage, and her cat Mr. Whiskers, and heads west. Hattie is met by Uncle Chester’s former friends and neighbors who soon become her own steadfast friends. She finds out she has one more year to prove up on her claim which includes setting over 400 rods of fence and cultivating 40 acres of the land. She endures hardships such as extreme weather, wild animals, difficult labor, but she also finds a sense of accomplishment. Hattie also battles Traft Martin who is continually pressuring her to sell her land to him, or he may question her loyalty to America during a time when anything German is suspect, such as her friendship with her German neighbors. After one of the neighbor’s children die from the Spanish Influenza, her friends teach her the true meaning of family and home. Although Hattie doesn’t keep her claim, she does learn what she is capable of and about having a real family. She leaves Montana to earn money to pay off her debts, and perhaps meet up with Charlie, an old school friend, coming home from the war looking for her.

Classroom Suggestions:

1. Research the kind of work Hattie might have gone through in eastern Montana in 1918 and under what conditions. (Setting fence rods, plowing with a horse, weather conditions in eastern Montana in both winter and summer, type of house, cooking, transportation, etc.)

2. This setting takes place during WWI, and we find out what life is like during the war for homesteaders in eastern Montana. What was life like for people in other parts of the United States, or other parts of the world.

3. The author, Kirby Larson, got the idea for her book after researching the life of her great grandmother. Have students research the life of their great grandparents or even further back. Have them write a short essay telling what part of history they may have experienced. Do they see any parallels to history since that time?