Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
Rachel Field’s masterful novel Hitty: Her First Hundred Years was first published in 1929; it was awarded the Newberry Medal in 1930. While not always politically correct in its word choice, the charm of this original version still makes it worth reading.
On a cold Maine night in 1829, an old peddler carved a small doll out of a piece of mountain ash wood. Her name was Hitty, and she was no ordinary doll. Hitty’s first owner, Phoebe Preble, takes her from Boston to India.
From the hands of Phoebe Preble, Hitty travels on with a snake charmer, a Civil War soldier, a riverboat captain’s daughter, and a former slave. Along the way she meets presidents and painters, relating each adventure in vivid detail.
- About the author: Rachel Lyman Field was an American novelist, poet, and children’s fiction writer. She remains best known for the Newbery Award–winning Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Field also won a National Book Award, Newbery Honor award and two of her books are on the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list.
