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Jan 10, 2009

Antof9 rated it:

Read as part of the Read the Newberys" reading project. This is by far my favorite of the Newbery books read yet (we started at the oldest and are working our way to current time). In fact, it was fun and entertaining to read. It's Mehitabel's (Hitty's) memoirs, and is so fun to read. Hitty, of course, is a carved wooden doll, who chronicles her life through owner after owner after owner. Hitty's adventures in a way reminded me of The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, another Newbery book, b More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 20, 2008

Wendy rated it:

Another one you all seem to have read and loved that I never picked up before. I expected it to be cheesy, but it was highly readable, suspenseful, and very funny. I read it almost without stopping, though the first half was superior to the second.

ETA: I see that an edition with "updated text" has been released, presumably to remove racial stereotypes. I wonder how far they went? The stuff with the former slaves would be fairly easy to adjust, but what about the natives More...

13 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2010

Kelsey rated it:

This book was a very interesting read for me. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about reading a book written from the eyes of a doll named Hitty, but after a couple of chapters I was somewhat fascinated. Hitty was carved out of mountain ash by an old peddler. He then gave her to Phoebe Preble. Phoebe takes Hitty to church with her, but accidentally drops her under a pew. Hitty spends a couple of terrible days under there until a boy named Andy finds her. Phoebe and Andy take Hitty on a picnic More...

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Oct 12, 2010

Kristen rated it:

I remember reading Hitty: Her First Hundred Years as a child, so it was very interesting to revisit this book as an adult. I think I appreciated it more the second time through, because I remember not being too fond of it when I was younger. I really enjoyed how the story was told from the perspective of a doll, because not too many stories are told this way. I especially liked how the author used Hitty's point of view to make it seem like she herself were writing the story when she said, " More...

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Oct 11, 2010

Lyndi rated it:

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Oct 11, 2010

Monica rated it:

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May 14, 2009

Melanie rated it:

I read this book practically in one sitting. It was a fast paced highly readable tale about a wooden carved doll who goes through many adventures and countries. She was carved from lucky mountain ash by a pedlar shown kindness by a Maine family in the late 1700s-early 1800s. The story tells of her writing her tale down while being a cherished favourite in an antique shop many years later.

I came away feeling so grateful that she had managed to keep her name thanks to her embroidered More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) rated it:

Copyright date: 1929…Odd to think that my mother might have run across this book as a little girl and read it….I remember reading it myself as a little girl. Like many of the older Newbery books, it is a vision into the past, a little trip into life for kids before TV and computers and IPods.

Hitty is a wooden doll made in the early 1800’s. Her underpants are embroidered with her name and along the way she becomes the most literate of dolls. One girl after another owns her, though h More...

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Feb 17, 2011

DaNae rated it:

She was shaped from a six-inch piece of mountain-ash, carried from Ireland in a peddler’s pack to ward of witches and other forms of evil. In Hitty: her first Hundred Years we travel though the titled century with that little vagabond piece of feminine-shaped ash as she is flung over a good portion of the world. From her respectable beginnings within a puritanical home she moves into situations that would scandalize most proper folk. Among her many incarnations Hitty can résumé graven-idol, More...

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Feb 28, 2011

Jill rated it:

How did this get such a high average rating? It's the 1930 Newbery winner and I struggled to get through it. I'm scratching my head wondering why this ever won. It would have been better as a 10 page picture book. 230+ pages of the same boring descriptions of mundane details. There were potentially exciting moments like the shipwreck or the auction near the end, and even in those moments I felt like I was trudging through thick mud just trying to make it through! Usually at the halfway mark t More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Tori added it

2004- This is the story of the life of one adventurous wooden doll named Hitty. First made for a young girl in Maine, the doll travels around the world and back passing from one youngster to another and recounts her journey along the way. Since the book was written in 1929, it gives it a certain charm to the author's writing, at the same time though; the author occasionally uses terms that would not be considered ""politically correct"" today. I know many older books do this, More...

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Oct 24, 2010

Chandra rated it:

After 100 years of life Hitty, the little doll made out of lucky mountain-ash wood, has decided to write her memoirs. In it she recounts her many adventures – from her time on a whaling ship to a brief stint as a pin cushion and much more. But like most good dolls her very best times where those when she was loved and played with by a little girl. And thankfully over the course of a hundred years there were many little girls – all with their own little virtues and defects. What makes this book More...

12 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2008

Anita rated it:

I read this as a child and while most of the historical information got past me, the magic of this little carved doll popping in and out of children's lives was wonderful to me. It's a treasure.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 23, 2009

Josiah rated it:

I was utterly wowed by this ingenius story by the inimitable Rachel Field. Truly, this is one of the best books that I have ever read. Rarely does a story come along with such believably solid and noble characters, a harrowing adventure that ranks in the top select few ever written, and unexpected sidetracks throughout that always left me guessing, and hoping against hope for Hitty and whomever her current "owner" was to make it through all right. The 1930's was, in my opinion, a grea More...

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Dec 12, 2011

Jen rated it:

It's official! Stop the presses! Two back-to-back Newbery award winners were written with well-rounded characters, logical plots, and moments of tension/climax in addition to that shiny gold sticker on the front. Whatever will we do? I may have to take back all of the nasty things I said about the Newbery winners.

I read this over the course of a month, a few chapters at a time during what has become my favorite Newbery Project reading spot: the bathtub. It was the perfect setting for More...

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Oct 14, 2010

Jenny rated it:

So clever... a Newberry winner from back in 1930. Told from the perspective of a doll named Hitty. She sits down to write her memoirs of her first 100 years of life. She had quite the life... several owners, trips on a whaling ship, life in India, in a Quaker home, with a painter and more. Toward the end, (last 30 pages or so) I was ready for it to end... it seemed to go a little slow or I was ready to be done. But such a clever idea and really quite a fun story. Also, shows how different More...

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Oct 14, 2010

Abigail rated it:

Originally published in 1929, and chosen as the Newbery Medal Winner in 1930, Rachel Field's Hitty, Her First Hundred Years is the charming autobiography of an American doll, and her many adventures, over the course of a century. Created from mountain-ash - a wood said to bring good luck, and ward off evil - by a wandering peddler, and given to young Phoebe Preble, Hitty's life began in the state of Maine (although her wood came, like her peddler creator, from Ireland), but soon took her to all More...

18 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2008

Francoise rated it:

Lovely story! Told from the viewpoint of a simple doll made of "magical" mountain ash wood in the early 1800's by a peddler in a rural area of Maine. Hitty sees much of United States history but as she passes from one little girl to another, in often very strange ways, always as a bystander. What makes her story so good are the observations that she makes as events occur in her life. She rarely gets to see her owner pass into adulthood as she has often changed hands by then, but s More...

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Feb 23, 2011

Emma rated it:

I have been meaning to read Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (illustrated wonderfully in what I assume is pen and ink by Dorothy P. Lathrop) for a rather long time. Several years ago my mother bought me a reproduction Hitty doll by Robert Raikes (big deal carver of dolls and bears though he no longer seems to be making Hitty dolls).

After buying the doll, and doing a bit of research, we found an edition of Field's novel with the original 1929 text and illustrations. The More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Debbie rated it:

Didn't love it. It's written from the standpoint of a doll who had been created in the early 1800s. The doll observes many things while she is carried from one place to the next, like going a whaling ship, getting shipwrecked, getting stolen, getting lost, getting stuck in a tree. It's pretty adventurous, however, some of the implications of the limitations of people of color are off putting in the 21st century and I know my animal loving kids would have a hard time with the whaling scenes. More...

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Oct 06, 2010

Cheryl in CC NV rated it:

I enjoyed this almost as much as I did the (at least two) times I read it as a child. It's not pc, of course, but in the context it's fairly respectful and compassionate - in fact it's a good exploration of lots of different ways people have lived. The foreshadowing, especially in the beginning, got a little tiresome ("little did we know...") but in the main it was gracefully written. If I do ever get into woodworking I will seek out mountain ash for crafts I want to last!

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Sep 17, 2010

Evelyn rated it:

Absolutely could not get into this book at all. Maybe it's because I've never been a doll person. What I found surprising about this book is that this is at a 7th grade reading level. I'm not sure how many 12 year olds would want to read a book about a doll's adventures. With an original publishing date of 1929, guess times really are different. This book might appeal to younger readers with a high reading level. In addition, I did not find the illustrations appealing at all.

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Nov 25, 2011

Matt rated it:

It's very hard not to be charmed by this book. Sure, there are some vaguely or not-so-vaguely racist parts (continuing our Newbery Racism Watch), but they are a small part of the book compared with the many charming scenes. Hitty is plucky and matter-of-fact and a great guide, and she has a wide range of adventures -- going to sea on a whaler, ending up with missionaries in India, and being exhibited at a great fair in New Orleans, among others -- that keep this fun book humming along.

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Jan 20, 2011

Kiersten rated it:

I hated this book when I was younger. I have no idea where it came from, but it was in our house, on the bookshelf in my room, and it haunted me. Even back then I hated having an unread book laying around, and I started it several times but thought it was boring, boring, boring (I was more of a Nancy Drew girl back then). Since then, I've read it and actually finished it, and I liked it much more than I did back then.

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Jun 28, 2008

Esther rated it:

Although this book is a little slow at times, I enjoyed it. The story follows Hitty (a wooden doll) through many adventures in her first 100 years of existence. There were many times in my childhood that I wished my dolls could talk. This is a chance to see the world from a dolls perspective. The story is based on a real doll that is displayed in a museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This would be a great book to read out loud to a daughter. The author does have a sense of humor about the diff More...

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Oct 15, 2010

Kay rated it:

When I began to read this novel, I thought, "Oh, it's like an older version of 'Toy Story'". That was somewhat true . . . but as I got into the book I thoroughly enjoyed the perspectives on people - different societies, cultures, and income levels - that the observing doll Hitty discussed. I can see why the book was a Newberry Award winner.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2011

Alisha rated it:

yet another read in the newbury winners.

perfect for little girls. i'm thinking age 5 (of the kind that listen to stories like mine seem to. I don't know if that is the norm). to about 7yrs.

i was so very bored and i didn't care at all about this doll's observations, but I know that a little girl WOULD, and more importantly, I like the way it introduces history. In a very different way than Kira-Kira, another book from this month.

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Feb 05, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

We read a lot of old literature in my house but my daughter and I never even finished this one. Neither of us connected with the main character and her whirlwind rush through history was hard to follow. I think you need a good grounding in the historical time period before reading the book. As a historian, i still found it flat.

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Jun 13, 2011

Patra rated it:

I really liked this idea of the author creating a story through the eyes and feelings of a doll. I was very interested through the first half of the book, but eventually it became somewhat redundant. I guess there is only so much you can do with a doll. It definitely will be a book I keep on my children's reading list.

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Dec 02, 2011

Abigail (Abbe) marked it as to-read

My copy is actually a 1934 edition and it is in very good condition. No pages are torn and the binding is solid. The book was given as a Christmas gift to a family in 1935. How sweet :) The color illustrations are beautiful. I found the book at the used bookstore in Pueblo CO and it was purchased for 2.50$.

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