Civil War Days (HITTY'S TRAVELS) - Softcover

Weiss, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689846711 ISBN 13: 9780689846717

Publisher: Aladdin, 2001

Synopsis

Meet Hitty.

She may be just a doll, but she has lived in many places and seen incredible things. Here is one of her adventures, as told by Hitty herself!

Hitty's owner, Nell, lives on a plantation in the South. When a house slave named Sarina comes to work for Nell's father, the girls become friends. But when Nell and Sarina break the rules of the plantation, things will never be the same again....

Meet Hitty.

She may be just a doll, but she has lived in many places and seen incredible things. Here is one of her adventures, as told by Hitty herself!

Hitty's owner, Nell, lives on a plantation in the South. When a house slave named Sarina comes to work for Nell's father, the girls become friends. But when Nell and Sarina break the rules of the plantation, things will never be the same again....

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Gr 2-5-Based on Rachel Field's Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (Turtleback, 1929), this book continues the doll's travels through history. Hitty arrives at a plantation in North Carolina as a birthday present for eight-year-old Nell. Nell also receives a slave, a gift she does not want. She immediately begins to teach Sarina correct grammar and, later, how to read, despite the fact that this is forbidden by law. Eventually, the two friends are caught and get into trouble with Nell's father. As the Civil War begins, Nell and her mother admit that they are not entirely on the side of the South, and the two girls know that nothing can ever stop them from being friends. The book provides a fairly accurate if rather whitewashed version of life on a plantation and goes into more depth and story than Mary Pope Osborne's "Magic Tree House" series (Random) written for the same age group. The main distracting element is the point of view, which is uneven and often confusing since parts of the book are related by Hitty, but others revert to a third-person narration. Characterization is rather stereotypical with the harsh slave owners, the weak Southern belle, the friendly child, the good slaves, and the handsome schoolmaster. Black-and-white illustrations are adequate.

Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Based on Rachel Field's 1929 classic, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Hitty's Travels: Civil War Days by Ellen Weiss, illus. by Betina Ogden, features the doll heroine in a chapter book format. Here Hitty belongs to a plantation owner's daughter as the girl befriends Sarina, an enslaved girl.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0689846711
• ISBN 13: 9780689846717
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 79
• Illustrator: Ogden Betina