Hitty is a 1930 Newbery Award—Winning Story written by Rachel Field. The book I’m reviewing is a new edition by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

Rosemary Wells loved the Hitty story when she read it “at least ten times” during her childhood. She says that it made American History come alive for her. At first Mrs. Wells was reluctant to rewrite the Hitty story. She said, “In my travels, booksellers and librarians told me I was asking for trouble if I adapted a Newbery winner. But no one I spoke to had actually read Hitty in at least thirty years, and that seemed a real shame.”

The book that I’m reviewing actually came from my ten-year-old granddaughter’s personal library. She loaned it to me and encouraged me to read it because she loves the story so much. Recently, on a shopping trip for her birthday, she found a “Hitty” doll at an antique shop. And she bought it with her own money. We had to vacumn spider eggs out of her skirts (She must have been found in an attic or barn prior to being brought to the booth we found her in.) And so— “Hitty” lives on today in the imagination of another generation.

The story begins (as told by Hitty) …

Hitty was made for an “almost eight years old” named Phoebe Preble in 1829. Carved by a peddler, she was dressed in red calico by Phoebe’s mother. Phoebe’s father, a Captain, brought Phoebe a matching necklace and bracelet of coral beads with an ivory elephant head in the middle, found during his travels. Phoebe had her father shorten the bracelet as a necklace for Hitty. Hitty says, “it later turned out to be the key to my rediscovery.” (p. 4)

Hitty is taken on a whaling ship with the Preble family. After their boat catches on fire and sinks, Hitty washes up into a rock pool and is found and returned to Phoebe, but the reunion is cut short when Islanders arrive and take Hitty away with them.

The Islander Chief passed Hitty along to his son. When a monkey steals away with her, one of the Captain’s crew members, Andy, clips the monkey on the ear with a clamshell. The monkey drops Hitty, and Andy is able to return her to Phoebe as they are leaving the Island in their small boat to meet a larger ship that was spotted. The ship took them to India.

They spent a day shopping in the city. Phoebe was worn out and as Bill Buckle, one of the crewmen, carried her, she fell asleep and Hitty fell from her limp hand into a gutter. Hitty never saw the family again.

She was found by a snake charmer and traveled throughout India as part of his performance with a Cobra. Hitty interjects, “I was sure I would end my days in heat and dust, far from my native state of Maine. Which only goes to show how little any of us can tell about what is in store for us.” (p. 39) (Sounds like a very profound… true to life statement … from a doll.)

Hitty’s life changes when she is bought by missionaries in India, who had been working to convert the Indians to the Presbyterian religion. Their daughter, Thankful, was to receive Hitty for her sixth birthday. (p.40)

When Thankful becomes ill then recovers, she is sent back to America to live with her grandmother. So once again, Hitty is back in America.

Thankful attends a party, where snooty girls make fun of her doll. Thankful pushes Hitty between a sofa cushion and leaves her behind. The sofa is soon removed to the attic and Hitty is left alone for fifteen years.

She is found in the attic one day and adopted by ten-year-old Clarissa Pryce whose family were Quakers. Clarissa, sewed clothes for Hitty, while her older sister Ruth made Hitty a desk.

Hitty and Clarissa end up meeting President Abraham Lincoln. Not long after, Hitty is sent by mail to a little girl in the south during the civil war. She arrives at a post office that is soon blown up, but a lady, Mary Chesnut, finds her in the rubble.

After she is found, Millie Nettletree, an ex-slave, wants to use Hitty to win a prize for the best dressed doll. Millie is a seamstress and believes she can earn the prize money to send her granddaughter to a Young Ladies’ Academy. Mary Chesnut donates her black pearl wedding necklace so Millie can sew the pearls into the prizewinning dress. And, once again Hitty makes a profound statement, “What a chance, I thought, for a doll not just to be loved and admired, but to be part of changing someone’s world.” (p. 67) (And is that not what we all wish to be in someones life?)

Hitty won the prize and was put on display. Stolen by a little girl… the little girl convicted at a church meeting, for stealing… and soon Hitty was thrown into a river to rid the little girl of her guilt. Fished out by two little boys… Hitty’s story continues.

Hitty is passed along until she meets Theodore Roosevelt and his family at the White House. She makes it through the depression and even witnesses the wonder of airplanes in the skies.

Hitty lives on today in the imaginations of little girls who read her stories and dream of owning a little doll made of wood as in the olden days—just like my granddaughter.

If you have children or grandchildren, teaching history from the Hitty stories is an easy way to do it. And, like me, you might learn a few details about History you never knew before.

I highly recommend adding this book to your library.

Have a great week of reading!