Hattie on Her Way

By Clara Gillow Clark

Book Overview

As she struggles to navigate polite nineteenth-century society, the feisty Hattie learns the difficult truth about a family mystery -- and discovers her own capacity for forgiveness and love. Now that Pa has plunked her down at Grandmother's in Kingston to get a good education like Ma, Hattie Belle Basket has traded her rough boy's overalls for a blue checked dress that matches her eyes. But prettying up her rustic Hill Hawk ways is not so easy, and Hattie is sure she will never be at home in this fancy gingerbread house, where her prim grandmother and the buzzardlike cook continually remind her she can't compare with her sweet, beloved late mother. Even her tutor, Horace Bottle, seems more interested in food than he is in teaching. And now the stuck-up girl next door is taunting her -- with rumors that a sinister fate has befallen Hattie's absent grandfather. Could someone in Grandmother's house be harboring an unspeakable secret?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763622869
• ISBN13: 9780763622862
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Great Characters. Dark mystery

In this sequel to HILL HAWK HATTIE, Hattie is lonely and homesick after Pa leaves her at her maternal grandmother's. Hattie has lived in a backwoods cabin for eleven years and she's well aware that her prim grandmother and Buzzard Rose the grumpy cook don't approve of her manners or her way of speaking. To make matters worse, the neighbor girl, Ivy Victoria (after the Queen of England)Blackmore Vandermeer, tells Hattie that her missing grandfather was murdered and buried in the garden by grandmother. There's dark gossip by high society and seances with Madame Blatzinsky along the way as Hattie becomes more and more frightened about what she hears and discovers. There are amusing moments with Hattie's tutor, Mister Horace Bottle, who loves food and poetry, but he proves himself a good friend to his lonely charge. Hattie has more than her share of troubles, but she's got an independent spirit and the capacity for love and forgiveness that will warm the heart of readers. Historical fiction at its finest and a good mystery to boot!

Clara Gillow Clark keeps getting better!

This book is a rare treasure. Anyone who enjoys to read will be glad they discovered and got to know "Hattie". Beautifully written, and historically accurate, it has the ability to transform the reader into "Hattie", and allows you to experience the story as if it were your own. You won't want this story to end. My entire family has read or is now reading this book, and we can't wait for Hattie's next adventure!