Hetty: First in Series

by Martha Sears West

Overview

HETTY: First in Six-part Series

[Mom's Choice Winner for Excellence in Family-Friendly Content]

Gentle, imaginative Hetty feels at home with her kindly parents but struggles to find her place in a new school. She takes refuge in her secret forest hideaway. When an accident forces her to rely on others, will Hetty find what it takes to grow up and fit in? And is a mysterious stranger watching over her?

HETTY is the first in a six-part "coming of age" series about a gentle-imaginative girl with loving adoptive parents and a firth father. They, and some very special friends, help daydreamer Hetty grow up. We watch Hetty grow up from ages 7 to 25 through the series. All six books are superbly crafted by 10-time Mom's Choice Award winning author-illustrator Martha Sears West.

West has superbly narrated a HETTY audiobook which is now available via Audible.com HETTY: First in Six-part Series is available in eBook on Kindle as well. For more information on this and Martha's other titles, please visit CleanKindWorldBooks.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780988678477
Publisher:	Probitas Press
Publication date:	07/15/2014
Series:	Hetty , #1
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.43(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ten-Time Award-winning author Martha Sears West grew up daydreaming and climbing trees in Bethesda, Maryland. Now the mother of three and grandmother of ten, West hopes everyone with children can see teenagers as the joy and inspiration she found hers to be. West, who received her B.A. degree in linguistics from the University of Maryland, claims to have merely provided the hand that jotted down the story. She feels Hetty composed this book herself.

Table of Contents

Chapter ONE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Hetty and Her Hypotenuse Day

Hannah

Inky Begins With P

The Defective Heart

Chapter TWO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Unattached Heads

Haxton Academy

The Penalty for Daydreaming

Lady Fairburn

Violence Is Not Boring

Ice Cream Trouble

Chapter THREE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.

Miss Altoona and the PTA

A Diamond in Combat Boots

In the Forest Service

Polite Night, Rude Night

Library Phobia

Chapter FOUR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.

Dora’s Birthday

Fears

The Librarian

Bridge to the Hideaway

Chapter FIVE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Leaf and Zack

Belching Rewarded

At the Bunkhouse

The Forest Fire

Gratitude

Bedside Friends

The Letter

Chapter SIX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

You-Know-What

Nature Happens

Frouncey

Chapter SEVEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Not Invited

To Like or Not to Like

No Hard Feelings

Chapter EIGHT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

The Winner

Fall and Rescue

Whack-a-mole

Chapter NINE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Potato Peelings

Company for Lunch

Bronze Giants

Something on His Mind

Chapter TEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Crime Report

The Past Revisited

Call Me Flora

Chapter ELEVEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

School Ends

Alone

In Hannah

The Board Game

Miracle Wings

Chapter TWELVE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

The Courtroom

The Preliminary Hearing

Case Dismissed

United

In the Cottage

The Album

Chapter THIRTEEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Thinking Ahead

The Perfect Day

P.S.

I Love You, Hannah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Editorial Reviews

Veteran Hollywood Art Director Bill Camden envisions, "Hetty is perfect for a family television series or motion picture."

KIRKUS REVIEWS:Sixth-grader Hetty adjusts to a new school, finds a forest refuge, and learns the reason for a lurking stranger in West's first installment of a Truman-era YA trilogy.

Henrietta "Hetty" Annette Lawrence tries to pay attention in math class but daydreams about the word "hypotenuse." Born with a heart defect, now fixed by an operation, Hetty had been home-schooled in recent years by doting parents Dora and Daniel, the latter a lawyer who shares his tales of working in the Forest Service.

The family has moved to a new home to be close to Hetty's new school, the all-girls Haxton Country Academy. A bit shy around the others, she often hangs out in "Hannah," a mighty oak in nearby "Olive Witch" forest (the name comes from Hetty mishearing her father say "all of which"). While hurt when not invited to a birthday party, Hetty also makes strides in her new world, including befriending schoolmate Melinda Morganthal, who has a considerate (and handsome) older brother, and gaining some attention by winning a local spelling bee.

By novel's end, there is a growing sense that Hetty is being watched. A dramatic act of nature clears up this mystery, significantly changing her life.

West (Longer than Forevermore, 2013, etc.) includes an illustrated map and sketches of flowing-haired Hetty. While there is a sense of the time period, including mention of Daniel and Dora's new 1949 Studebaker, physical location is left a bit hazy, perhaps to reflect this delightful heroine's fanciful mind, although there's missed opportunity to more richly fictionalize a real destination as did Anne of Green Gables, this work's obvious influence.

Still, West effectively builds suspense for this book's final revelations, including shifting occasionally from Hetty's third-person perspective to plant hints via other characters' viewpoints.

Best of all, parents will appreciate the "clean" nature of this novel, which should still please a tweener audience given its tee-up of the romance no doubt to come in the next installment of this series.

Sweet teen girl adventures, reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables. - Kirkus Reviews

"Everyone should read this book!"-Anika Isom, age 13

From the Publisher

2015-12-11
Sixth-grader Hetty adjusts to a new school, finds a forest refuge, and learns the reason for a lurking stranger in West's first installment of a Truman-era YA trilogy. Henrietta "Hetty" Annette Lawrence tries to pay attention in math class but daydreams about the word "hypotenuse." Born with a heart defect, now fixed by an operation, Hetty had been home-schooled in recent years by doting parents Dora and Daniel, the latter a lawyer who shares his tales of working in the Forest Service. The family has moved to a new home to be close to Hetty's new school, the all-girls Haxton Country Academy. A bit shy around the others, she often hangs out in "Hannah," a mighty oak in nearby "Olive Witch" forest (the name comes from Hetty mishearing her father say "all of which"). While hurt when not invited to a birthday party, Hetty also makes strides in her new world, including befriending schoolmate Melinda Morganthal, who has a considerate (and handsome) older brother, and gaining some attention by winning a local spelling bee. By novel's end, there is a growing sense that Hetty is being watched. A dramatic act of nature clears up this mystery, significantly changing her life. West (Longer than Forevermore, 2013, etc.) includes an illustrated map and sketches of flowing-haired Hetty. While there is a sense of the time period, including mention of Daniel and Dora's new 1949 Studebaker, physical location is left a bit hazy, perhaps to reflect this delightful heroine's fanciful mind, although there's missed opportunity to more richly fictionalize a real destination as did Anne of Green Gables, this work's obvious influence. Still, West effectively builds suspense for this book's final revelations, including shifting occasionally from Hetty's third-person perspective to plant hints via other characters' viewpoints. Best of all, parents will appreciate the "clean" nature of this novel, which should still please a tweener audience given its tee-up of the romance no doubt to come in the next installment of this series. Sweet teen girl adventures, reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables.

Kirkus Reviews