Hill Hawk Hattie

by Clara Gillow Clark

Angry and lonely after her mother dies, eleven-year-old Hattie pretends to be a boy and joins her father on an adventure-filled rafting trip down the Delaware River in the late 1800s to transport logs from New York to Philadelphia. Reprint.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

The youngest child in a family who came from "a long line of farmers and readers," Clara Gillow Clark began school in a one-room schoolhouse and-when she wasn't wanting to be an inventor, archaeologist, geologist, missionary, or solo violinist-grew increasingly drawn to writing. After marrying and having a son, she read a magazine article on children's author Judy Blume, who, like her, was a stay-at-home wife who sold her own crafts before starting her writing career. Inspired, Clara Gillow Clark began commuting to writing classes in New York City, while juggling jobs ranging from teacher's aide to store manager.


Her long efforts paid off. "Now I work at home,"she says, happily. When she's not writing--or reading, or teaching writing, or talking shop with other writers--she enjoys baking, gardening, and walking the dirt roads bordering her little red house, surrounded by her own meadows, woods, and lake. "Walking," she says, "is a love I learned from my father, who took his sprawling brood on nature walks and taught us to stop long enough to really see things."


Clara Gillow Clark lives in Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Carol Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hill Hawk Hattie by Clara Gillow Clark, fiction for upper elementary school girls, tells the beautiful story of 11-year-old Hattie Belle in the late 1800's. With her mother dead, Hattie is left alone with her father, a rough logger who makes his living by rafting the logs down the Delaware River.

One day her father comes home and announces that Hattie is going to pass as his son and join him on the river. Concerned that she's no longer "his girl," Hattie still settles into the logging routines and befriends 13-year-old Jasper, another logger's son.

Clara Clark describes the trip down the Delaware in vivid detail. The reader gets to experience the perils of riding through rapids on a raft that can break apart any minute and how fearful Hattie is that the other men will discover her identity and turn against her father.

Towards the end of the book Clark uses the metaphor of Hattie's journey to show Hattie's inner life. In reflecting on her mother's death Hattie confides to Jasper, "I think my ma got stuck in her mind somewhere between her fine home in Kingston and our hills. Somehow, I think it just pulled her apart, like a raft breaking apart on rocks you can't see." (p. 146)

After they get off the river, Hattie discovers that her father has a different plan for her life. A river of thought spun around in my head, floated together, fit into a pattern like logs and lash poles, pieces that shaped the story of our journey, mine and Pa's. "You taking me to Kingston, Pa?"

A beautiful read for old and young readers a like!

[Ellen L. Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid historical novel with likeable characters and lots of action as Hill Hawk Hattie deals with the hard work of logging--and the hard work of pretending to be boy.

[Tracey Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this MIddle Grade story about a girl pretending to be a boy in the late 1800's so she can go logging and rafting with her father. The writing is beautiful, with vivid descriptions of the outdoors, and the relationship between father and daughter is handled so well.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

B. fiction, YA, historical fiction

[Katharine Ott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ma died in November." Eleven year old Hattie Belle is living in the hills of Pennsylvania in the 1880s when her mother dies, leaving her alone with her Pa. Hattie has to deal with her own grief, and with her Pa's - "Pa does a lot of hard drinking and cussing." She shrewdly notes, "Guess Ma was the sugar that kept us sweet."

The story becomes an adventure yarn when Pa decides to treat Hattie like a boy and takes her with him as he hews trees and readies them for market. Hill Hawks are loners, who "liked to nest in high places," but this one takes flight. It's fun to read about their rafting trip to get the logs up north, where Hattie realizes she thrills to the adventure and is even skilled at the rafting. "Rafting was a darn good frolic."

Author Clara Gillow Clark pairs Hattie with a boy about her age during the trip and they form a close friendship. Clark puts us into Hattie's way of thinking with her short choppy thought expressions in the hill vernacular and reminds us that Hattie is always "longing to be a girl again." She gets her wish in the end, although with a twist. If you're a map enthusiast, bring one along as you read this book, to follow the path of the rafting adventure.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the death of Hattie's mother it seemed like her sweetness also left the lives of Hattie and her Pa. Both felt mean inside and Hattie's missed her father calling her "his girl." One day he decides to make her help with his logging and rafting which is dangerous even for grown men. Hattie soon learns to enjoy it, disguised as a boy, but longs to be a girl again. At the end of the rafting trip Pa leaves Hattie with her grandmother to get the education that her Ma would have wanted for her. A beautiful story set in early American history of dealing with the pain and challenges of losing a beloved family member.

[K.L. Going · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book with an evocative setting and a character who has real personality and will stick with you after you've closed the book. I especially want to recommend this book to any readers in the Delaware Valley or rural NY, NJ, PA area since this book ties in to local history. I know of a school in this area that plans to read this book with their students and then take a river rafting field trip!

[Hani Barghout · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a great book. It talks about a girl whose mom died when she became 12. Her father made her do all the work her mom was doing and he made her help him in his work in the woods. My favourite part was when Hattie wrote in her moms journal. This book tells us, reader, about life and how hard would it be and how can you go with it.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Times are very difficult for Hattie and Pa when Ma died. Pa has Hattie take on the role of a boy to go river-rafting with him. He leaves out a lot of details, which ends up showing his love for her. She makes friends with Jasper. There's a lot of a coming of age to this story as well. This historical fiction reminds readers that we don't know everything and to think the best in others.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Motherless Hattie struggles with her father's seeming lack of love, and is forced into pretending to be his son in this coming-of-age, dealing-with-grief novel. I enjoyed Hattie and might check the other books on her from the library.

[Charmaine Mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction once again shining a light on little note parts of our own history - in this case, the "old time rafting era" of the Delaware River.

[Peggy House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way historical aspects on non-fiction are brought into this work of fiction.