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Hitch
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Teenager Moss Trawnleyis in desperate need of work, and so he decides to headout west as a member of Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to help protect Montana’s wildlife from devastating erosion and wildfires. Despite the grueling work, Moss has time to play baseball,make lifelong friends, and rediscover what he almost lost in the Great Depression: himself.
Bringing ...more
Bringing ...more
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Paperback, 288 pages
Published
September 1st 2006
by HMH Books for Young Readers
(first published January 1st 2005)
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A review from my old blog...
I absolutely loved this book.
In Hitch, Ingold describes the journey of Moss Trawnley in becoming a man during the middle of the Great Depression. Moss deals with a father who struggles with alcoholism and commitment issues of his own before joining up with the CCC Civilian Conservation Corps one of the alphabet soup organizations created during the New Deal.
Though as a fiscal conservative sometimes I cringe at how Roosevelt drastically increased the size and scope of ...more
I absolutely loved this book.
In Hitch, Ingold describes the journey of Moss Trawnley in becoming a man during the middle of the Great Depression. Moss deals with a father who struggles with alcoholism and commitment issues of his own before joining up with the CCC Civilian Conservation Corps one of the alphabet soup organizations created during the New Deal.
Though as a fiscal conservative sometimes I cringe at how Roosevelt drastically increased the size and scope of ...more

This is an important book that highlights the struggles of young adults in the Great Depression. It also brings alive life in a little-known area of the United States in a compelling and dramatic way. It made me want to visit Montana and to learn more about the young men who were forced into labour because they couldn't find work. The Depression is a time period that's always held some fascination for because of the way it bonded people together and forced them to be strong.
This is a ...more
This is a ...more

I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story of a young man in 1935 who finds work and purpose when he joins the CCC. I especially liked the tagline on the cover: Becoming a man takes work. Interesting implications for the young characters who realize at the end of the book they may all end up fighting WWII together.

i started this book in my litteracy class with three other classmates. we were reading this book together but we ran out of time to finish it. i was enjoying the story end got the book for myself to finish on my own. i'm glad i did, it is a very good book i love the story and the challenges that moss is facing trying to be a leader and how heb is responding to it. i'm very happy that i went back to finish this on my own because i would have missed out on an amazing book!

Jul 06, 2012
Anthony
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
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young-adult-fiction
The Civilian Conservation Corps was one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s initial New Deal programs designed to put the nation’s young men to work during the Great Depression. They were charged with among other things the tasks of reforestation, dam and reservoir construction, and park restoration. Ingold tells a fascinating story that shows why a young man might join the CCC and what camp life might be like.
More than just being an overview of the CCC though, she creates a likeable protagonist for ...more
More than just being an overview of the CCC though, she creates a likeable protagonist for ...more

t's the late 1930s, right in the midst of the Great Depression. Moss Trawnley gets fired from his job - and has his mother and younger sisters at home that depend on his income. Pa is supposed to be taking care of them but isn't keeping work to send money back to the family. So when Moss learns about the CCC, he joins up. This is a tale of adventure, survival, the hardships of the Great Depression, the joy of friendship, and the importance of standing up for what's right.
I'm not usually a fan of ...more
I'm not usually a fan of ...more

This book was interesting. It flowed well and was informative for what the CCC were about.
What I didn't like, was Moss himself. I didn't get to know him as well as I wanted to. He was very stand-offish. He even commented, to himself, that he didn't understand how others could speak so freely about themselves - like telling where they were from and about their families. This just felt like an excuse to keep him from getting too close to the others, though he ended up forming some great ...more
What I didn't like, was Moss himself. I didn't get to know him as well as I wanted to. He was very stand-offish. He even commented, to himself, that he didn't understand how others could speak so freely about themselves - like telling where they were from and about their families. This just felt like an excuse to keep him from getting too close to the others, though he ended up forming some great ...more

it was a great book that explained the struggles of life during the great depression and what teenage boys did for there families to get back on there feet. It also helps explain that if something may not be able to be completed with enough hard work and the Will to finish you can. finally if all of your plans go wrong and you are brought down by people who think they are better then you they may not be and you should prove that to them.

Near the end of the last school year, we decided to revamp our English curriculum. Hitch and Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals were two books that we decided to add to our 9th grade English class. We liked Hitch because it was told from a male's perspective, a major plus for high school, and it is historical fiction. I recently read it since I am adding it to my class this trimester and I surprisingly enjoyed it much more than expected!
Like I said, one of the reasons we wanted to read ...more
Like I said, one of the reasons we wanted to read ...more

Moss Trawnley has lost his job, which means he has to put radio school on hold. Because he can’t go home (his mom couldn’t afford to keep him along with his sisters), he sets out to find his dad, who supposedly went north to find work. The time is the Great Depression and the setting is America’s west—the dust bowl. Moss does find his father, realizes he’s a loser and sets off to find work with the CCC in Montana. He succeeds in getting in a squad, and eventually works his way up to Junior
...more

Mar 21, 2012
Kiersten V.
added it
Hitch by Jeanette Ingold is about a boy named Moss's struggles to make money for his family during the Great Depression. After his father lost his job he moved the family to Spanish Creek , Louisiana, then left in search of a job. Moss left them too, and went to Muddy Springs, Texas to work at the airfield. But after his boss fired him, Moss had no where to go. He ventured to Montana to find his lost father. He arrived in bitter disappointment at the sight of his father, who was jobless and
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I didn't realize I'd already read this book until I was at least a chapter into it. I liked it just as much a second time, though probably savored it more the first time (I read it in about 3 hours last night).
The story follows Moss Trawnley as he joins the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in Montana during the Great Depression. Having participated in the present day cousin of this program (AmeriCorps) I liked learning about the historical nature of the program while also enjoying the ...more
The story follows Moss Trawnley as he joins the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in Montana during the Great Depression. Having participated in the present day cousin of this program (AmeriCorps) I liked learning about the historical nature of the program while also enjoying the ...more

I thought this was a very informative book about the CCC which there seems to have been very little written about. I was curious about it because my Grandpa served the CCC when he was probably about the same age as Moss (the main character) but in Northern Minnesota. I remember him telling me stories about some of the things they did & once, we visited the State Park they worked at. I was pretty bummed to see the low ratings on this book, especially from people who hadn't even finished the
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Moss is a teenage boy who's lost his way but still wants to do right by his family and himself. He ends up joining the Civilian Conservation Corps in Montana. (The CCC was a real thing, a New Deal organization that employed young men to work on/build/improve roads, parks, forests, and other public buildings and land.)
I took particular delight in Moss's journey with the CCC, because it so closely mirrored my own journey with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. We were told that NCCC ...more
I took particular delight in Moss's journey with the CCC, because it so closely mirrored my own journey with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. We were told that NCCC ...more

I met Jeanette Ingold not too long after this book was published. At the time, though, I was interested in her book The Big Burn. Not only had I fought forest fires for many years, but I had written a research paper in college about the fire of 1910 or the big burn, so we had a fun chat about that. I came across Hitch the other day and was excited to read it. I enjoyed The Big Burn, but I think Hitch was even better written. This story takes place in Montana, late 1936, and tells about a boy's
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I just loved this book. I read it for the college history class, which shortly needs to choose a book of choice (fiction or nonfiction) about US history after Reconstruction. 17-year-old Moss joins the CCC during the Great Depression when his father disappears and stops sending money back to the family. Though many fellow workers are assigned to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone, Moss and his friends end up in Montana, helping to rebuild failing farmland, divert water sources and train local
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The book was taken place in the era of the depression. Moss tawny was fired from his job. HE then traveled to go meet his father to see how he was dooing. Moss needed money for his family back home. Thats why he went to seek out his father. Once he found his father, Moss also found out he was the new town drunk. As Moss now new this, he went to seek out a job for himn and his family. He left his father and Went to a CCC camp for training. This would give moss's family 25 dollars a month. He was
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Great historical fiction book (written for a young adult audience) about the CCC, from a young man's perspective. Can't say why I've been fascinated by Depression-era stories lately, but this fits that bill. In some ways, lightly reminiscent of "Water for Elephants." Moss (great name) has a shiftless father and a mother with younger siblings needing support back home. He ends up joining a CCC group in Montana, and the book describes his emotional and physical growth via the CCC program. If you'd
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I read to page 40 in this young adult historical novel, and just couldn't continue. Not when I have so many interesting novels on my shelves begging to be read. I don't think this is a bad novel, but I just felt like I was reading a junior high Accelerated Reader novel. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood? But, anyway, I felt like I was wading through so much historical background information and waiting for the plot to kick in. I didn't want to wait. So I stopped.[return][return]The official
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I plan to send this book to my teenaged grandsons. Their grandfather, my late father in law, was actually in the CCC during the Great Depression and he helped construct a bridge across the Ochlockonee River that we still use today. I am hoping they find it more relevant than some of the better known books such as All's Quiet on the Western Front, that they have been assigned. There are interesting thought/discussion questions in the back. A lot of the issues that young Moss faces are ones we
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Moss Trelawney’s dad has given up. The U.S. is deep in the Depression, and he’s become a drunk who left his family to fend for themselves. So Moss decides to be as different as he can be – he joins the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, a group that will forever change the face of America. The CCC runs like the Army, but it builds dams, plants trees, changes the flows of creeks and rivers – all to fight the deadly Dust Bowl and prevent mass starvation. But it’s really hard work, and the
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The book Hitch by Jeanette Ingold is about a boy named Moss who joins the CCC to help support his family during the great depression. I feel that this book is ok. Sometimes it is very boring, while other times it is action packed. I feel the author goes into too much detail on things that don’t really matter. There are some parts that are suspenseful, but others are just boring. I also felt this book had two good messages. One being that family comes first, which is showed when Moss joins the
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Hitch was my first Jeanette Ingold read. I was initially drawn to it because of its depiction of the Great Depression, because I grew up in a time when my parents' generation still vividly remembered those times. My dad's stories of managing a community library after school and setting pins in the local bowling alley at night always kept me in thrall, and the flyleaf description of Moss Trawnley's similar stories got my attention. Here's a book for kids that have never heard my Dad's stories", I
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A Texas seventeen-year-old who wants to become a radio operator during the depression gets a job in Montana with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) when he loses his job and has to help support his family after his father abandons them and becomes a drunk. Explores leadership, working for a cause, unity, overcoming adversity, friendship, some romance
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I love road trips and museums, mountains and woods, libraries and old houses, mysterious photographs, and people with stories to tell. I’m a Montanan who grew up in New York in a family of Texans. I’ve a husband, two kids, a pair of grandkids, and a dog named Mica. Most of my best friends are other writers, and my days don’t feel right when I don’t begin them by putting words on the page. And
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