Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

This is a Newbery Honor Book and I absolutely loved it. But, then again, I am a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and good historical fiction. In this novel, sixteen-year-old Hattie is an orphan who inherits 320 acres of Montana land from an uncle she never met. So, Hattie, by herself, tries to improve the land so she can keep it. She builds fences, plants wheat and flax, and fends off the aggressive man who wants her land. But this isn't the typical homesteading novel. Hattie doesn't make it. Hail ruins her crops. The German family she befriends loses their daughter to the Spanish flu. But she leaves the farm with her head held high anyway. She might get her soldier boy who is back from the war. And we know that she'll do fine whatever happens to her in Seattle. Very uplifting, easy read.