Rachel FieldRecensioni

A prayer for boys and girls full of the intimate gentleness of familiar things, the love of friends and family, and the kindly protection of God.

In 1743, thirteen-year-old Marguerite Ledoux travels to Maine as the indentured servant of a family that regards her as little better than the Indians that threaten them, but her strength, quick thinking and courage surprise them all.

I’m not sure this needs a review.

This book is charming, the soft and nurturing warmth of family and God shine from this book in a way relatable to small children.

This particular edition is larger and a better choice for reading aloud and sharing the illustrations.

Very interesting to read children's historical fiction written a century ago; some passages would not be considered acceptable today, but it has may salient qualities as a piece of history.

Lovely first book of prayer.

This an interesting enough read, as Hitty keeps having decent ventures during her these hundred years. But… this doll is kind of a brat. She whines and complains pretty consistently. After a few hundred pages I really wasn’t pulling for her. By far I thought the most likable character was Hitty's first owner (Phoebe) and I would have preferred the story stay on Phoebe's side when they parted. While it's an okay tale, by the end of the book I just didn’t care all that much.

Marguerite is a "bound-out girl," rather like an indentured servant after she is orphaned soon after her uncle and grandmother bring her to the New World from France. The Sergent family takes her in as their servant for a six-year bondage. The book takes place over the course of one of those years, as the Sergent's move to settle in the wilderness of Maine. There isn't much plot. Mainly, we are just seeing what pioneer life was like. It reminded me a great deal of the Little House on the Prairie series, but for all the fame of the Ingalls Wilder books, I thought Calico Bush was better written and more interesting.

H.H. 52

We read a lot of old literature in my house but my daughter and I never even finished this one. Neither of us connected with the main character and her whirlwind rush through history was hard to follow. I think you need a good grounding in the historical time period before reading the book. As a historian, i still found it flat.

NA

Cute! 1929 and it shows its age - Hitty has a firm sense of modesty, and of her appearance, and Opinions on people and especially their clothes. Still, it's enjoyable, if highly unlikely - I don't know how lucky she was for the people she was with, but she certainly had an unreasonable lot of luck in being found and returned to her people several times, or moving on to new homes. Much better than Miss Hickory, with a similar flavor. Glad I read it, though I doubt I'll bother to re-read.

Read this as a child. I remember the title more than the book - I really liked the title.

Hitty is a doll, made by hand in 1820s Maine. This book is her memoir, written from an antique shop in the 1920s and details her travels and great adventure throughout the world in 100 years as a doll. She sees a great many different kinds of people and has wild experiences. This book is certainly from a different time, and there are some problems with the portrayal of people of color. Overall though, this book has some old timey charm.

For 6.25" of mountain ash, the fictional doll Hitty, does get around a lot. Between her Maine island origin in the early 19th century to her achievement of a place in a New York antique store window, she goes on a whaling expedition, spends time with a cobra in India, returns to Philadelphia and visits much of the Midwest and south before being returned to her original home though not her original owner. Written by the woman who purchased the eponymous doll from the New York store, this imaginative set of tales is quite the lesson in how the attitude with which we accept our circumstances determines their meaning. And Hitty's attitude is quite charming in its mix of acceptance and judgement.

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Rachel Field. 1930. I remember a librarian giving me this book when I was in the first or second grade and asked for a book about dolls. I tried to read it, but just couldn’t get into it and avoided it in my Kitty Lit class. However, it caught my attention at the Catholic Social Services Thrift store, and I finally read it; and I enjoyed it! What a difference 60 plus years can make!! Hitty is a wooden doll carved for a little girl in Maine in the 1800s who tells us the story of her doll’s life. And what an adventurous life it was! She is lost in the woods, captured by cannibals when the whaler’s ship capsizes, spends quite some time in Indian, and eventually ends up back in the United States where she has even more adventures and finally ends up in an antique shop. I am amazed at the detail in a book written for children, but this was when it was fashionable to

read! The book is a product of its time and would shock a lot of people since it is very politically incorrect at times.

What an odd book. These are the memoirs of a doll. Literally.
And apart from a couple of major caveats, it's not bad. But the book was written in 1929. Sensibilities and what was considered acceptable were much different then. The modern reader will likely find it somewhat offensive that South Seas island natives are referred to as savages and heathens, and will find it highly offensive, as I did, on the mercifully few pages where Southern black characters speak in dialect. Extreme dialect. Anyone who wasn't white and Christian was viewed as inherently inferior. (Though interestingly, Hitty herself seem to take a slightly more liberal view than the humans of her era do.) These were things that few if any readers in 1929 would have been bothered by, but any modern reader will.
That said... The doll is hand crafted sometime in the chronological vicinity of 1825. The story begins in present day (that being 1929) and the doll is on the shelves of an antique dealer. She decides to pick up a quill and write her memoirs. Fortunately for us, she has quite a remarkable memory. We are regaled with her highly adventurous life story, through a number of owners, both children and adults. The writing style is reminiscent of Daniel Defoe's in Robinson Crusoe. It was sort of a "Red Violin" type story.

This book about teaching a child to pray. It goes through a child's day and says prayers for the different things they encounter. It prays for their food, sleep through the night, clothes,belongings, and many other things. This book would be good in a Sunday school class in order to teach kids that they can pray for everything they do on a daily basis.

I'd love to read this book to my classroom. I believe that since the doll writes these memoirs it teaches children a point of view of something that can be lost. Higher vocabulary would mean a lot of pausing during a read aloud.

My book group liked this more than I did. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. I read this when there was a lot going on elsewhere in my life. I just didn't get swept away as I often do with the books we choose. It is certainly a very interesting idea and well executed. A great way to sneak a geography lesson into your reading time. I especially enjoyed finding out that the story began when the author and illustrator found and purchased a hundred year old doll in an antique shop.

The artwork illustrated the text line by line. Although branded Caldecott Medal, the illustrations did not capture my interest. However as my daughter read the lines the illustrations, helped her to predict the text. From the level of its intended audience, age five to ten it is appropriate.½

I remember reading this in elementary school. When I found this copy I thought I'd re-read it.

Hitty, short for Mehitable, is a small doll carved out of mountain ash wood. Her face, hair and shoes are painted on, and she wears a chemise with her name embroidered on it. Her arms and legs don't bend, but he can be made to sit and put her arms up. She is a plain doll, but being carved during the early 1800s she is adequate.

At the time of this book, Hitty is figured to be a little over 100 years old. She feels it is time to write down all that she had been through. Created in Maine for a young girl, Phoebe Preble, who carries the doll where ever she goes. Going on a trip on a whaling ship and winding up stranded on a tropical island inhabited by natives. Being lost in India and becoming the doll of missionary's daughter. Time spent as a secret possession of the daughter of a Mississippi paddle wheel captain.

She experiences a wide range of adventures over the 100 years, and this book is the compilation of them.

Written in 1929, the book was given the Newbery award for 1930. Written in a proper and slightly stilted style, it adds to the feeling of someone writing from another era. At times it is a bit slow, but it is an easy read. Not simple but easy. I think I enjoyed it more as a child but still found it charming this time around.

Hitty is a very special doll who belongs to Phoebe Preble. Phoebe is proud of her beautiful doll and brings Hitty everywhere she goes.

Lovely, lovely ...

On the first page of this book, there is a prayer. Then, as the book goes on, it the prayer broken up on each page. The prayer is read like a poem and I really enjoyed it. The pictures were colorful and went along well with the lines of the prayer.½

This book is a rhyming, illustrated prayer. On the first page of the book, the entire prayer is recited. The following pages contain a line or two of the prayer accompanied by beautiful illustrations. The prayer is intended to be a bedtime prayer. It focuses on comfort, protection, and love. The illustrations bring warmth and familiarity to young children. I think this would be a great read for the classroom. I would start by reading the first page and let their imaginations paint their own pictures. Then, I would turn the book around and read page by page and let them enjoy this soothing book.