The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schiltz Genres: Children's Fiction (Tween), Coming of Age
Format: Hardcover
Buy the Book • Goodreads
Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself—because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of—a woman with a future. Inspired by her own grandmother’s journal, Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz relates Joan’s journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!), taking readers on an exploration of feminism and housework; religion and literature; love and loyalty; cats, hats, and bunions.
Oh how I adored this book! It was sweet! You can’t help but fall in love with the heroine and her search for knowledge and freedom. The life, the spirit and the soul of Joan lives in us all! The Hired Girl is a charming story filled with hope.
A must have for every library collection!
