Book #41: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

This was a book club read for last month, which I didn't end up attending because of the new baby and all. But I figured I wanted to read it anyway, and oh man I am so glad I did. I think I may be a sucker for frontier stories, like Laura Ingalls Wilder. This one was set in 1918 Montana, which hits even more close to home for me because my grandpa was born in Montana just 20 years later. So it can't have been all that different for him in his growing-up years. In the afterword to the book, the author says that the main character, Hattie Inez Brooks, was actually her grandmother who went and proved up on a claim in eastern Montana (although she took liberties with the details of the story). I LOVE that! What a great way to honor your family history.

This book follows Hattie Inez Brooks, a sixteen-year-old who inherits her uncle's Montana claim and has to go work for a year to "prove up" on the claim. She is an orphan and goes out there hoping to find a home, since she never really had one growing up. She arrives to find out that there is a long list of requirements for "proving up," including building 480 rods of fence and planting 40 acres. However, she digs in, and she makes friends with her neighbors. WWI also plays a role in the story, through her letters with her old friend Charlie off fighting in France, and through the anti-German sentiment that shows up in her county (affecting her best friends, the Muellers).

I really enjoyed this book. I listened to it, which I think may have been part of the appeal. If I had been reading it, it probably would have taken me an hour and a half to finish, and I may not have had enough time to get really into it. But listening to it made me slow down and appreciate the story and the descriptions of rural Montana at the time. I liked how close-knit the community was that Hattie created, and the descriptions of the work that she had to do (although it didn't seem like one girl could really accomplish all that was required--by the end of the book there wasn't as much talk of her working at all and I felt like there should be more of it). But I loved the character of Hattie--she was simple but mature and determined. I'm glad to have been introduced to this book.