Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. New York: Delacorte Press, 2006.
Orphaned at the age of five, Hattie has been shuffled from place to place between relatives for eleven years, with one consistent message at every place she lands: she does not belong there. After three years under Aunt Ivy’s dubious care, she is beginning to think she will never find a place that feels like home. But then, out of the blue, she receives a letter from a long-lost uncle with a jaw-dropping final paragraph:
Being of sound mind, I do hereby leave to Hattie Inez Brooks my claim and the house and its contents, as well as one steadfast horse named Plug and a contemptible cow known as Violet.
Signed, Chester Hubert Wright, Uncle to Hattie Inez Brooks
Postscript: H–Bring warm clothes and a cat.
The bequest of a homestead claim of 320 acres in Montana is too much for Hattie to resist, and she leaves to take up the claim almost immediately, eager to finally have a home of her own. To inherit all that land, though, she first has to prove up the claim for its remaining ten months. To do that, she must plant and harvest crops on 40 acres of land, as well as putting up a mile and a half of fence; needless to say, the project turns out to be more than she bargained for! First she’ve likely to freeze to death, then there’s so much heat and drought that she wonders if she’ll die of the sun, and in between are so many lessons learned the hard way that she’s occasionally tempted to up and quit the whole darn thing. Things are finally starting to look up for her when the worst happens–will Hattie be able to keep the only real home she’s ever known?
