Hitty, her first 100 years, by Rachel Field

I loved this book as a child and when my husband picked it up off the bookshelf and thought it looked interesting, I decided to re-read it.  Hitty is a hand-carved doll made of mountain ash wood in the early part of the 1800s.  When the book opens, Hitty is in an antique shop and begins to write the story of her life with a quill pen she has found – she favors it over more modern writing implements. The story chronicles her adventures over the next century as she is lost and found by various little girls.  I particularly remembered the chapters where she was owned by a little Quaker girl.  Written in 1929, only a few parts of it are a bit dated – when she is found by an African American in a New Orleans, floating like Moses in a wicker basket, the dialect used in this chapter makes a modern reader cringe, although the people themselves are portrayed respectfully.  I think it is almost time for someone to rescue Hitty from that antique store, give her to a young girl in the Depression, and send her on her next round of adventures.  I do note with some horror that there is an updated version that looks as if it has been shortened and bowdlerized.  Leave the original alone – the language is wonderful – and send her off into her next century.  (Jim enjoyed it too)  207 pp.