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Kirby Larson

Forfatter af Hattie Big Sky

32+ Works 5,973 Members 307 Reviews

Om forfatteren

Includes the name: Kirby Larson

Serier

Værker af Kirby Larson

Hattie Big Sky (2006) 1,642 eksemplarer
Dash (Dogs of World War II) (2014) 424 eksemplarer
Duke (2013) 411 eksemplarer
Second-Grade Pig Pals (1996) 387 eksemplarer
Hattie Ever After (2013) 294 eksemplarer
The Friendship Doll (2011) 254 eksemplarer
Liberty (2016) 191 eksemplarer
Growing Up with Aloha (2017) 127 eksemplarer
Audacity Jones to the Rescue (2016) 124 eksemplarer
Code Word Courage (2018) 122 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby and Me (2013) 121 eksemplarer
Hula for the Home Front (2017) 64 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby at the Ballet (2013) 40 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby Has a Tea Party (2014) 35 eksemplarer
Audacity Jones Steals the Show (2017) 34 eksemplarer
The Spirit of Aloha (2019) 32 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby the Brave (2013) 27 eksemplarer
The Magic Kerchief (2000) 26 eksemplarer
Princess Bitty Baby (2013) 26 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby Makes a Splash (2014) 23 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby Loves the Snow (2013) 16 eksemplarer
Bitty Baby Shares a Gift (2014) 9 eksemplarer
Cody and Quinn Sitting in a Tree (1996) 4 eksemplarer
Gut Reaction (2024) 3 eksemplarer

Associated Works

The Creativity Project: An Awesometastic Story Collection (2018) — Bidragyder — 97 eksemplarer

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Though I think she uses too many exclamation points, I love Hattie and think she earns comparisons to Anne Shirley. Both started as just orphan girls and eventually became confident, intrepid women with big dreams.

This story takes place in San Francisco in 1919. Hattie works hard to become a reporter at the Chronicle, facing down sexism, scandal, and her heart tugging her towards Seattle and Charlie. I love that Hattie decides to put her career hopes first instead of just marrying Charlie and settling down as a wife.

Lots of great historical detail (Boeing, postcards, $2.50 for a week at a hotel), a lovable heroine, and a bit of mystery make this a great read.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
LibrarianDest | 19 andre anmeldelser | Jan 3, 2024 |
Continuing my reads of historical American Girls that showed up after I aged out of the target demographic! The newest of the historical line girls, Nanea's story is a different take on WWII than Molly McIntire's, a Hawaiian girl living in Honolulu when the Pearl Harbor attack happens.

Given how I felt about my last middle grade WWII historical fiction from Kirby Larson ([b:The Fences Between Us|8848996|The Fences Between Us|Kirby Larson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328838161l/8848996._SX50_.jpg|11103189]), I was peeking between my fingers hoping this wouldn't be as disrespectful a take. Luckily, AG consulted with an advisory board to make sure Nanea's world felt true to life, and Nanea's far more sympathetic to the plights of her friends than Piper Davis was (I did wonder if Piper's brother was going to cameo, but no).

Nanea is tired of being treated like a baby as the youngest, and wants to be responsible and help her friends and family. When war comes home, she faces opportunities to help all while her world gets tightened under martial law. Some of the dialog felt younger than 9, but I'm two decades past that point so take a chunk of salt with my judgement there.

It looks like starting in 2015, historical line books got condensed into two volumes instead of six, and with illustrations removed- perhaps to appeal to more of a middle grade audience? I couldn't discern split points if this were to be one, and maybe this gives authors more flexibility to flesh out a story in >80 pages. I do feel like illustrations are a classic part of American Girl, though, especially putting faces to the names of friends and family (and earlier this year they announced that illustrations are being added to these in reissues). I don't recall previous books being as on-the-nose describing some of the outfits and things which are surely available for purchase in a catalog...! I also think this could've been a great #ownvoices opportunity, but fine I guess Kirby can keep writing books about youths in WWII because this wasn't terrible.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |
I've no complaints here- Hula for the Home Front picks up about a week after Growing Up Aloha left off, with school resuming a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack. There's a new girl and Nanea is jealous (and still feeling the pain of Donna moving away as non-essential personnel). Her older brother is also a few months away from turning 18, and she worries that he will enlist in the US Army.

I still feel weird about this two book format vs. the original 6, but we still cover school, birthday, and big life change beats for Nanea, classic American Girl topics. I do miss having illustrations, but this is a good companion to Molly's perspective on how WWII affected young people.… (mere)
 
Markeret
Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |
Hmph. That was frustrating, if my updates didn't give away indication of that.

There's an author's note at the end, where Kirby Larson explains why she wanted to write this story- although born and raised in the Seattle area, she didn't learn about Japanese American incarceration until her college years in the 1970s, and while making up for lost time she learned about Pastor Emery "Andy" Andrews, a Baptist minister who followed his Seattle Japantown congregation to Twin Falls, ID and continued his ministry. What a story of hope! Just not one that lends itself well to the teenage-girl-diary format, so let's invent a fictionalized version with a teenage daughter...

Pastor Andrews is an important story of people doing good in the face of apathy. Piper Davis IS apathy. In the first third of the book she's primarily concerned with boys and school and being mad at her dad for not letting her wear lipstick. Then, the Pearl Harbor attacks happen and she becomes afraid for her brother, stationed there on the Arizona. Meanwhile, a church acquaintance (friend would be generous at this point) gets bullied and spat on by boys outside her junior high, but Piper walks on because, "what would those boys think if I stopped?" She bemoans the fact that her father helps so publicly that the newspapers mention him and they get angry phone calls at night- "why can't he help our friends without being so out there?" is essentially one of the entries.

Eventually, the order comes for all people of Japanese descent to leave their homes for remote camps. Piper's father makes the decision to follow his flock and help out where he can. Piper takes this news BADLY because she was looking forward to such a FUN eighth grade year (pausing briefly to consider her church friend Betty living with her family in a one room converted horse stall at the Puyallup fairgrounds, before going back to giving her dad the silent treatment). When they move to Twin Falls, ID, they find that not all the locals are pleased to have sympathetic people in town and it just isn't fair.

While Piper does eventually learn the meaning of friendship, I kept thinking this book would work so much better if it were from Betty Sato's perspective. I'm guessing it isn't so because Kirby Larson probably didn't feel comfortable filling the shoes an #ownvoices author could've used but... c'mon. Telling the story of Japanese American incarceration through a white pastor's kid is like talking about the family detention centers on the border through the eyes of a white pastor's kid in El Paso- glad to see you can meet minimum standards of empathy, but it's hard to take you seriously when you gush about the yellow wallpaper of your new house and then soberly reflect on Betty's camp conditions, briefly. I recognize the argument that maybe this fills a void in white-perspectives-on-Japanese-American-incarceration, but did that gap need to be filled? Do readers that don't know a history need a similar, unaware proxy to learn how to empathize, OR could they read an account by the affected and listen, then reflect?

I was more into The Royal Diaries than Dear America so I don't remember if epilogues saying where characters ended up after they grew up are a thing, but this one irritated me by killing off the friendly guy in camp who showed romantic interest in Piper but she shut down because he filled that big brother void in her life. It sounds like Betty writes the fictional version of [b:Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment|649361|Farewell to Manzanar A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment|Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481673039l/649361._SY75_.jpg|807858] (which came out in 1973! HOW DID KIRBY NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS). I see on other reviews [b:Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi|12505783|Torn Apart The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi (Dear Canada)|Susan Aihoshi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316410750l/12505783._SX50_.jpg|17491343] is suggested as equivalent but that's for the Canadian equivalent camps- action taken after the US government decided to incarcerate our citizens. Japanese Americans are citizens too- why are they Othered in a book about them??
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Daumari | 23 andre anmeldelser | Dec 28, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Jean Cassels Illustrator
Nancy Poydar Illustrator
Tim O'Brien Cover artist
David Roth Cover designer
Juliana Kolesova Cover designer
Meryl Schenker Author photograph
Blake Morrow Cover artist
Maeve Norton Book and Cover designer

Statistikker

Værker
32
Also by
1
Medlemmer
5,973
Popularitet
#4,131
Vurdering
4.1
Anmeldelser
307
ISBN
186
Sprog
3

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