My thoughts:
Hattie Big Sky is a little book with a HUGE heart. Hattie is a character that will stay with you long after you've finished the story.
It's starts with her receiving a letter from an uncle she doesn't remember-
Being of sound mind, I do hereby leave to Hattie Inez Brooks my claim and the house and it's contents, as well as one steadfast horse named Plug and a contemptible cow known as Violet.
Chester Hubert Wright
Uncle to Hattie Inez Brooks
P.S.
H-Bring warm clothes and a cat.
What first grabbed my attention was the location of the story-Montana is just over the hill from where I live in Idaho and I know how cold those Montana winters get-well below 0. Also the knowledge that this story is based on the author's great-grandmother who actually did prove up her claim in Montana as a young woman. I just knew I had to read her story.
Hattie leaves Iowa and the closest thing she has ever had to family to claim a piece of property that an unknown uncle has left her. With very little money, the orphan is mostly hanging on to hopes and dreams as she heads into the unknown-Vida, Montana.
What she finds when she arrives is a shack, not a house and 320 acres of unfarmed land.
To fulfill the requirements of proving up her claim she will need to cultivate 40 acres and build a fence around her property-and she only has ten months to do it. If she fails to meet these requirements to land goes back to the bank and she gets nothing.
Hattie is such an easy character to love and cheer for as she faces the many hardships of a first time homesteader.
I was so wrapped up in her story I was disappointed to reach the last page. I was left wanting to know more about the life and times of this amazing young woman.
This book is available at the Salmon Public Library. I would recommend it for readers 12 and up. I will be purchasing my own copy to give to my own daughter and I look forward to her getting to know Hattie Brooks.