Hattie Inez Brooks

Hattie Brooks is sixteen years old and lives in Arlington, Iowa with her Uncle Holt and her Aunt Ivy. She was born in Arlington on the twenty-eighth of October in the year 1901. It is now December in the year 1917, and Hattie is just months from finishing school. She is a sometimes shy, self-contained girl who has been shuffled from one family member to another since her mother passed away when she was just five years old. Since her father had already been dead for several years at that point, Hattie found herself orphaned and at the mercy of ever more distant family for her care.

Hattie's best friend is Charlie Hawley. In fact, she considers Charlie to be the best thing that ever happened to her. Charlie took Hattie under his wing when she arrived in Arlington, walking her to school, finding Mr. Whiskers (an old...