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Hattie Big Sky

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Hattie Big Sky

By: Kirby Larson
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
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About this listen

 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER

A classic YA novel about a teenage girl searching for a sense of home and family that celebrates the true spirit of independence on the American frontier.

For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim.

Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove. Her quest to make a home is championed by new neighbors Perilee Mueller, her German husband, and their children. For the first time in her life, Hattie feels part of a family, finding the strength to stand up against Traft Martin’s schemes to buy her out and against increasing pressure to be a “loyal” American at a time when anything—or anyone—German is suspect. Despite daily trials, Hattie continues to work her uncle’s claim until an unforeseen tragedy causes her to search her soul for the real meaning of home.

This young pioneer's story is lovingly stitched together from Kirby Larson’s own family history and the sights, sounds, and scents of homesteading life.©2007 Kirby Larson; (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group Family & Relationships Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Primary Education Fiction Growing Up

Critic reviews

AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS
A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK
A BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE
NAMED TO 13 STATE AWARD LISTS

★“Larson creates a masterful picture of the homesteading experience and the people who persevered.”–School Library Journal, starred review

"A marvelous story about courage, loyalty, perseverance, and the meaning of home." --Newbery Award-Winning Author Karen Cushman
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Kirby Larson's wonderful story about a young woman homesteading in Montana during the First World War is completely absorbing, heartbreaking and full of fascinating period detail (there's a reading list at the back for anyone eager to know more!). However, I've really been moved to review this title by the fantastic narrator, Kirsten Potter, who brings Hattie to life with warmth, humour and vivacity. I loved this recording and highly recommend this novel (in terms of similar material, I found that it filled the gap between Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather rather nicely, but that might just be me!).

Come for the novel, stay for the narrator...

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