Hattie Big Sky is a novel for young adults that is set in the year 1918, an interesting time in our history. WWI (known as the Great War or the War to End All Wars) is soon to be ending, Woodrow Wilson has outlined his 14 points of peace, the influenza pandemic is widespread, and anti-German sentiment is rampant in the US.

Hattie is 16, orphaned, and living with her aunt and uncle as a charity case in Iowa, the last in a series of relatives she’s been shuttled back and forth to. While her uncle is kind to her, her aunt is not and makes Hattie’s life pretty miserable. In spite of her hardships, Hattie’s spirit and kindness cannot be squelched and she works hard to make her life bearable. Just in the nick of time, an unexpected inheritance of a homestead from an unknown uncle sends Hattie off to the wilds of Montana to work her dead uncle’s claim. She looks forward to her newfound freedom and a life of adventure as a homesteader.

Hattie is soon to find out that being a homesteader isn’t such a grand adventure. She arrives in blistering cold to find out that she has less than a year to cultivate her claim, build a staggering amount of fence, and somehow manage to survive the harsh winter. The kindness of her German neighbors, the Mullers, makes life bearable and in at least one instance saves her life.

Hattie’s dear friend from school, Charlie (I think she really loves him) is away at war in France, and Hattie’s spirited and lively letters to him, as well as her articles for the Iowa newspaper she comes to write for, give a wonderful insight to her brave and upbeat personality, as well as a window to the hardships she faces.

I found Hattie Big Sky to be completely wonderful. It’s fresh, funny, insightful, and exciting. One of the things I really loved about the book is just how kind Hattie is, how big-hearted, honest, and firm in her convictions. She refuses to let the anti-German sentiment keep her away from the Mullers, and she stands up to the people in town even though she is desperately lonely and looking to make a place for herself, a home, a family.

In spite of the sure knowledge that she will stand alone, she takes that stand and refuses to give up her friendship with them. That is courage, fine and true. That alone would make Hattie Big Sky a great book but there is more, much more and I highly recommend it.