Hitty Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Hitty was published in 1929 and won the Newbery in 1930. I knew nothing about this book until I read 52 Monday's by Anna Ciddor in 2019. I have kept my eye out for a copy of Hitty so I was surprised and delighted to see a copy at a recent charity book sale. In fact there were two copies which is quite strange when you consider this is a very old children's classic from America - I wonder who owned these two copies here in Australia. 

Hitty is a wooden doll who passes through the hands of many different owners over the period of one hundred years. The exact dates are not stated but I think she was made in Maine in 1830 so she lives through the Civil war; the end of slavery; the advent of steam trains; the early days of motor cars and changes in fashion.

Fashion and clothing are an important part of this story and I imagine a child who read this book back in the 1930s or perhaps 1940s would have loved the way various owners keep making new clothes, some from very beautiful fabrics, for Hitty after all her adventures. The narrative follows a pattern where Hitty is owned by a child, a young girl, and then she is somehow lost or dropped or flung far away. She lives in various houses and settings all over the country and travels in sailing ships, trains, a steam ship, horse drawn carriages and a car. She tells her story as a memoir from her final home in an antique shop. Having lived with various children Hitty had learned to read and write so that's how she can share her story with her readers. 

The original illustrations for Hitty were by Dorothy P. Lathrop

Here is a brief plot summary from Wikipedia: The book details Hitty's adventures as she becomes separated from Phoebe and travels from owner to owner over the course of a century. She ends up living in locations as far-flung as Boston, New Orleans, India, and the South Pacific. At various times, she is lost at sea, hidden in a horsehair sofa, abandoned in a hayloft, part of a snake-charmer's act, and picked up by the famous writer Charles Dickens, before arriving at her new owner's summer home in Maine, which turns out to be the original Preble residence where she first lived. From there she is purchased at auction for a New York antique shop, where she sits among larger and grander dolls of porcelain and wax, and writes her memoirs.

How Rachel Field was inspired to write this book is a story in itself. She and her friend Dorothy Lathrop, an illustrator, had been eyeing a tiny wooden doll in a New York City antique shop. No larger than six inches, the calico-clad brown-skinned doll seemed to have so much character. At twenty-five dollars, quite a tidy sum back then, she was out of their budget. Finally, the two friends agreed to pool their money to purchase her, and at once, little Hitty stirred their imaginations. (source)

I think a modern child is probably unlikely to want to read Hitty - the historical references won't mean much to an Australian child of course but also at times some of the writing feels quite dated and even at times racist. My copy from Aladdin (1998) has very tiny print. I do like stories about dolls (my own favourite is Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden) but as a child I am not sure Hitty would have appealed to me. As an adult I did find the whaling scenes very distressing and also I grew a little tired of the repeated plot pattern of with Hitty constantly (I think in every chapter) being lost and found.

In 1999 Rosemary Wells wrote a new edition of Hitty with illustrations by Susan Jeffers. I think the image below might be the one from under the dust jacket. Here is a detailed review which explains all the plot twists in the life of little Hitty (she is quite a tiny doll almost small enough to fit in a pocket). I have read a few other reviews of the Rosemary Wells edition and most readers who loved the original do not really like all the text changes. 

When you Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

I used to be able to talk to her. I used to tell her everything. If this had happened a few years ago, 

I would have said, I JUST SAW A TIGER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. 

I would’ve shouted it right into her ear because I couldn’t hold it in.

Mum and her two daughters - Lilly and Sam - are moving back to live with their grandmother or halmoni (grandmother in Korean). Very gradually we are given some brief details that dad has died in a car accident. This move will be a new start for the family but more importantly it is clear Halmoni is unwell. 

Halmoni buys rice and pine nuts and herbs to cast magic, she feeds spirits, she believes in all the things you cannot see. She lives in a house at the top of a hill, a house covered in vines, with windows that watch like unblinking eyes. She is a witch, looming over the town, like something out of a fairy tale. She’s not normal. I’m not normal.

On their journey Lilly sees some thing very frightening. She knows her grandmother has told the girls stories about tigers. And now she has seen one.

I gaze out the windshield. The landscape that slips by is peaceful. Gray stone houses, green grass, gray restaurants, green forest. The colors of Sunbeam blur together: gray, green, gray, green—and then orange, black. I sit up, trying to make sense of the new colors. There’s a creature lying on the road ahead. It’s a giant cat, with its head resting on its paws. No. Not just a giant cat. A tiger.

When they arrive at the house Lilly encounters the tiger again. She makes a bargain with Lilly. If Lilly returns the stars that were trapped in jars by Halmoni then the tiger will restore Halmoni to good health. Halmoni has told Lilly the story of the Tiger and the stars. 

“I am the littlest girl in the littlest village, and I am sneaky. I hide outside the caves and wait until the tigers fall asleep, until their snores echo through the land. And then I get to work, grabbing the stars—the bad stories—in my fists, stuffing them into jars.”

“I seal jars up. Then I tiptoe away from cave, so soft, hush-hush. Before I leave, I think, I be extra safe. I make sure they don’t follow. So I take rocks from the forest, one by one, and stack them at the mouth of the cave, until they make a wall. Big, heavy wall. Until the tigers trapped inside.”

“Nothing last forever, Lily. Tigers break free. The tigers very angry. Now they coming for me. ... “They hunting me now. They don’t stop hunting.”

Lilly finds the important jars but then she has to work out how to trap the tiger in the basement. The family now live across the road from the library, so Lilly decides to go there to find out how to trap a tiger. In the library she meets a boy named Ricky. He will prove to be a new friend and a boy who can help Lilly navigate this complex time, but will she be able to trap the tiger in time? There are three jars and three stories the Tiger could tell Lilly. Sam calls her sister a QAG - quiet Asian girl - but Lilly has to find a way to break away from this label or stereotype because she is sure she is the only one who will be about to save her halmoni. And of course time is running out.

Blurb from the author page: Would you make a deal with a tiger? When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni’s Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history.   Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now, the tigers want it back. And when one of those tigers approaches Lily with a deal—return what Halmoni stole in exchange for Halmoni's health—Lily is tempted to accept. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice… and the courage to face a tiger.

Opening sentences:

I can turn invisible. It’s a superpower, or at least a secret power. But it’s not like in the movies, and I’m not a superhero, so don’t start thinking that. Heroes are the stars who save the day. I just—disappear. See, I didn’t know, at first, that I had this magic. I just knew that teachers forgot my name, and kids didn’t ask me to play, and one time, at the end of fourth grade, a boy in my class frowned at me and said, Where did you come from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. I used to hate being invisible. But now I understand: it’s because I’m magic.

Keller infuses this tale, which explores both the end of life and coming-of-age, with a sensitive examination of immigration issues and the complexity of home. It is at one and the same time completely American and thoroughly informed by Korean culture. Longing—for connection, for family, for a voice—roars to life with just a touch of magic. Kirkus Star review

There is one sentence that made me gasp in this story. Over five days eleven years ago this week I sat with my mother as she was dying. Someone told me the last sense to go is hearing and so I said the same words that Lilly said to her halmoni reassuring my little mum that I too would be okay:

“It’s okay,” I whisper, leaning so close to Halmoni that my lips brush her ear. I close my eyes and breathe. Sometimes, the bravest thing is to stop running. “It’s okay if you go. We will be all right.”

I gave When you trap a Tiger four stars - I think this is because I just read a similar book or at least one with a similar plot involving a young child and their grandmother - Children of the Quicksands by Efua Traore. This meant I wasn't quite in the mood for another book of magical realism and cultural folktales even though When you Trap a Tiger is Korean and Children of the Quicksands is set in Nigeria. I did enjoy, in this latest book, the way Lilly grew in strength and also her determination in the face of terrible fear that she could and must help her grandmother. The final scene I described above also deeply moved me. I think this book is for readers aged 10+ with good reading stamina and for readers who have experienced books like this one previously. Ricky is also an interesting character. At first I thought he might have ADHD or be on the autism spectrum but then later in the story we discover he has lots of friends at school. I did find the early scene in the supermarket where his father berates him unresolved and therefore a little confusing. This may be because I read those parts a little too quickly.

When you trap a tiger won the Newbery Medal. You can see other books by Tae Keller here. If you enjoy books with folk tales woven into the narrative you might also look for these:

Where the mountain meets the moon

Zadie Ma and the Dog who Chased the Moon

A Glasshouse of Stars

Paperboy by Vince Vawter

This was beautifully written and palpably sad. Ms Yingling Reads

Carefully crafted language, authenticity of setting and quirky characters that ring fully true all combine to make this a worthwhile read. Kirkus

Have you ever read a book where you kept anticipating dreadful events, you gasped, turned the page and then that event didn't happen but instead a few pages later the author slammed you up against a wall with something even worse? I started Paperboy late in the afternoon and read a few chapters, then read a few more at midnight and then woke up at 3am and read this book right through to the end. All the while I was holding my breath because I was so worried about 'Little Man'.

It seems amazing when I think about it but in over 32 years as a Teacher-Librarian I never had a student who stuttered but I did work with one teacher (in hindsight I think about his bravery to be a teacher and face a group of ten year olds every day) and knew a young boy when I was a teenager. As humans there are some hard things in life that we have to navigate. Sensory impairment such as hearing loss, vision loss, epilepsy, and other disabilities that can make life so complex. I found it heartbreaking to read how much 'Little Man' struggled with his stuttering. In fact the reason we don't know his actual name until the final pages of this book is because his own name is almost impossible to pronounce - it contains the most tricky sounds. 'Little Man' is a highly intelligent young boy and this book and we get to know his story because we can hear his thoughts and read his typewritten words.

His best friend has gone away for a month over summer. 'Little Man' takes over the newspaper delivery job from Art or Rat as he is known. Over the following weeks 'Little Man' meets a variety of characters. My favourite was Mr Spiro who, in contrast with his newspaper delivery boy, uses long complex sentences and shares deep philosophical ideas that come from his extensive reading and huge personal library. He shows a beautiful level of kindness and intelligent interactions with the young boy. On the other hand, the town 'junk man' is a violent individual who you will desperately want 'Little Man' to avoid. When he risks his life twice and has to confront this disgusting man I wanted to shout at 'Little Boy' to run away because I knew he was in enormous danger. You can tell I became very involved in this story.

Adding to the power of this story at the end we discover this book is based on the life of the author. Read this detailed interview. Here are some quotes from the interview:

" ... everything in the book which had to do with stuttering, was factual. I had trouble saying my name, and on more than one occasion, I would pass out because I held my breath too long trying to say my name. If you remember the scene where the boy is in the restaurant with some of his parents’ friends, and he gets embarrassed, and it all just starts coming onto him and he loses his spaghetti all over the table and everybody? That actually happened to me."

"In the past few years, I've been reading an awful lot about the covert stutterer. I should have been the poster boy for covert stuttering. I tried to hide my stutter in every way I could. I would lie about it, I would skip class, I would do anything. I would pretend I was sick; I would do anything not to have to speak in class, or in some social situation. What that did is it held me back from starting on my journey of finding my voice."

"Saying my name was my albatross. At the start of school each year, I would start going into sweats, about the middle of August. School would start the first of September, I'd start worrying about it in August because I knew the teachers would say, "Okay, everybody stand-up, tell us your name. Tell us your brother and sister’s names. What your pet is, and what you did this summer." I'd have rather been whipped 40 lashes than do that."

In terms of an Australian young adult reader this book does contain aspects of US History from the 1960s especially racial discrimination and also a few references to baseball and famous baseball players but these references did not mean anything to me, but my ignorance did not affect the way this story totally engrossed me. Listen to an audio sample of chapter one - Mam is not his mother - she is the hired help - a brave African American lady who I would love to thank for the way she loves and protects 'Little Man'. 

Blurb: Little Man throws the meanest fastball in town. But talking is a whole different ball game. He can barely say a word without stuttering—not even his own name. So when he takes over his best friend’s paper route for the month of July, he’s not exactly looking forward to interacting with the customers. But it’s the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, who stirs up real trouble in Little Man’s life.

Awards for Paperboy:

• A Newbery Honor Award Winner
• An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book
• An IRA Children’s and Young Adults’ Choice
• An IRA Teachers’ Choice
• A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year
• A National Parenting Publications Award Honor Book
• A BookPage Best Children’s Book
• An ABC New Voices Pick
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Recording
• An ALA-YALSA Amazing Audiobook
• A Mississippi Magnolia State Award List Selection

On another level this book is also about racial discrimination. Think of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr and also the movie The Help. There are two further books in this series (both are Young Adult or adult titles) and the final one deals with the five days in April 1968 that changed the world - the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Read more here. 

I am working my way through some Newbery winners and honor books from the last 25 years. I was so lucky to spy Paperboy at a recent charity book sale and it only cost AUS$2.

Companion books:

Walking to the bus-rider Blues

Stella by Starlight

The Parker Inheritance

How High the Moon

I also found a list of Middle Grade books that feature stuttering: Say It Out Loud by Allison Varnes; The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga; and Wild oak by C.C. Harrington.

Newbery Award 2000-2025 Books I have read

After I read Magnolia Wu unfolds it all I was curious to see which Newbery books (winners and honor titles) I had read and of course the ones I had missed. This week I also revisited Charlotte's Web which was a Newbery honor title in 1953. You can see covers of all the winners from 1922 onwards in this video (I have read 44 of the books she shares - it is odd the way she cannot pronounce so many author names). 

The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children". The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. ... To be eligible, a book must be written by a United States citizen or resident and must be published first or simultaneously in the United States in English during the preceding year. Six authors have won two Newbery Medals each, several have won both a Medal and Honor, while a larger number of authors have won multiple Honors. (Wikipedia)

There is always some controversy about awards - we have our own share of this here in Australia - so I was interested to read this School Library Journal article from 2010 by Anita Silvey. Then ALSC President Pat Scales responded, "the criterion has never been popularity. It is about literary quality. How many adults have read all the Pulitzer Prize-winning books and... liked every one?"

So here are some of the books I have either talked about here on this blog or read in the past (prior to the start of this blog in 2008). This activity reminded me of so many titles I thoroughly enjoyed, but interestingly, I had no idea that many of these were in fact past Newbery awardees. I have added Newbery as a label to this post and when you click that you will find my posts about each of these books (that was quicker than linking every title) although I did link a few extra special ones. 

Newbery 2000-2025 Books I have read ... 

2025 Honor Books:

The wrong way home by Kate O'Shaughnessy

Magnola Wu Unfolds it all by Chanel Miller

2024 Medal Winner: The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers 

2024 Honor Books:  

Elf Dog and Owl Head, by M.T. Anderson, illus. by Junyi Wu 

Simon Sort of Says, by Erin Bow

2023 Medal Winner: Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson 

2023 Honor Books:  

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat 

2022 Medal Winner: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera 

2021 Honor Books: 

We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly, illustrated by Erin Entrada Kelly and Celia Krampien 

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat 

2020 Honor Books: 

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga 

2019 Honor Books: 

The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr 

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani 

2018 Medal Winner: 

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly 

2018 Honor Books: 

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson 

2017 Medal Winner: 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill 

2017 Honor Books 

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk 

2016 Medal Winner: 

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña 

2016 Honor Books 

The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley  

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan 

2015 Honor Books: 

El Deafo by Cece Bell 

2014 Medal Winner:  

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo 

2014 Honor Books:  

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake 

2013 Medal Winner:  

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate 

2013 Honor Books:  

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage 

2012 Honor Books:  

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai 

2011 Medal Winner:  

Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool 

2011 Honor Books:  

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia 

2010 Medal Winner:  

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead 

2010 Honor Books:  

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly  

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin 

2009 Medal Winner:  

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean

2009 Honor Books:  

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, illus. by David Small 

Savvy by Ingrid Law 

2008 Honor Books:  

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis   

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt  

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson 

2007 Honor Books:  

Rules by Cynthia Lord 

2006 Honor Books:  

Whittington by Alan Armstrong, illustrated by S.D. Schindler 

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale  

2005 Medal Winner:  

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata  

 

2004 Medal Winner:  

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by 

Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, 

2004 Honor Books:  

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes 

2003 Medal Winner:  

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi   

2003 Honor Books:  

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff   

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen   

A Corner of The Universe by Ann M. Martin 

2002 Medal Winner:  

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park 

2002 Honor Books:  

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath 

2001 Medal Winner:  

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck 

 

2001 Honor Books:  

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)  

2000 Medal Winner:  

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis  

And here are some past winners and honor titles I would like to read:

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D Schmidt

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Dead end in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Paperboy by Vince Vawter

Genesis begins again by Alicia D Williams

When you trap a tiger by Tae Keller

Looking further back at the Newbery lists I also spied other books I loved such as A Cricket in Times Square; On the Banks of Plum Creek; The Hundred dresses; My Father's Dragon; From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Summer of the Swans; Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH; The Upstairs Room; The Dark Is Rising; Bridge to Terabithia; The Great Gilly Hopkins; Dicey's Song; Sarah, Plain and Tall; The Whipping Boy; Hatchet; Number the Stars; Shiloh; Missing May; The Giver; Walk Two Moons; Catherine, Called Birdy; The Midwife's Apprentice; The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963; The View from Saturday; Out of the Dust; Lily's Crossing; Ella Enchanted; and Wringer.