Hattie Here-and-There (real name is Hattie Brooks) has been pushed from distance relative to distance relative ever since her father and mother died when she was a child. After receiving a letter to prove up on her uncle's claim in Montana, she leaves Iowa, where she has been living as a charity case with her aunt and uncle, and heads west hoping to finally find what she has always been looking for... home.
While excited about her adventure, she soon learns that homesteading is a difficult life for everyone, but especially a 16 year old female without a family. She is befriend by the neighboring family that involves her in the politics of this small Montana town because the husband is German. Because the book is set during World War I, there are many additionally hardships that people of German descent faced. Hattie stands up for what she believes is right even if it means offending the most powerful landowners in the town.
The book is engaging and the narrative switches between her thoughts, her letters to her childhood friend/ love that is fight in Europe, and a to her uncle that is published as a column in an Iowa paper. This further makes it more interesting to read and the story moves quickly.
I will say that I thought the ending was rushed. Once everyone gets sick, what was taking her chapters to build up to all ended too fast for my taste. But perhaps if you like short books, you will be happy that she gets to the end so quickly. :) In addition to being a Newbery Honor book for 2007, this novel is also based on the author’s own family history; her great grandmother was the original Hattie who struck out on her own on the Montana prairie as a sixteen year old. I thought that was pretty cool. I love a good pioneer story. It took me back to Little House on the Prairie, but better.
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