Author: Ellen Weiss
Recommended Age: 8-11
Genre: Historical Fiction
Books in Series:
- Civil War Days (2001)
- Gold Rush Days (2001)
- Voting Rights Days (2002)
- Ellis Island Days (2002)
Summary: Hitty is just a simple, wooden doll, carved in 1829 in the state of Maine. But as the years pass, she experiences some of the greatest events in American history!
Notes from The Radical Reader:
- Noble Characters: These stories are filled with simple delight and characters who faithfully work through struggles in the world around them. Following multiple little girls throughout the changing years, Hitty experiences the shaping of America and the lives of its people.
- Captivating Plots: Runaway slaves in the Civil War. The Gold Rush that calls everyone to California to fulfill their dreams. The days where women fight for voting rights in the years leading up to World War I. And finally the story of the immigrants flocking to American soil and landing on Ellis Island. Through these four stories, early readers will experience history through the eyes of one brave little doll.
- Elaborate Worlds: Hitty has traveled all across the United States to experience the miraculous events that shaped her nation. For nearly a century, Hitty encourages and helps the girls she knows to take a stand against wrongdoing and fight for courage and truth.
Noteworthy Elements:
- Profanity: The word “drat” is used once. The slave master uses the expression “there will be the devil to pay” and “by heaven” when referring to the trouble the slaves are causing and the election of Abraham Lincoln. A man comments “good lord” and the expression “so help me God” is used once. The words “stupid” and “idiot” are each used once by a spoiled child who despises Hitty.
- Spiritual: A child makes a reference to her mother watching her from heaven. Hitty comments that her life is at “the whim of the Fates”.
