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Can a tough farm girl realize her dreams of refinement? Joan is fourteen and she’s not allowed to go to school anymore, because she has to do the drudge work on the family farm. She writes in her diary and reads in order to better herself, but when even her novels are taken from her, she runs away. She is lucky enough to find work in a modern household in Baltimore, working for a Jewish family that owns a department store. She is in love with the books in the family’s library, especially a big book of art, and she is a little smitten by some of the family members, too. But can Joan keep her job long enough to save up for her dreams, or will her flights of fancy and her well-meant attempts to meddle in the family’s lives be too much? Read the Hired Girl to find out.
Read a sample chapter.
Book details: Schlitz, L. A. (2015). The Hired Girl. Somerville, MA: Candlewick. ISBN 9780763678180; hardcover; $17.99.
Annotation: A farm girl’s eyes are opened to the wider world when she becomes a servant for a Jewish family in Baltimore.
Awards:
- WSRA Just One More Page! List
- Tayshas High School Reading List (Texas)
- Grateful American Book Prize Honorable Mention
- ALA-CBC Building a Home Library List selection
- Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book
- TriState YA Review Group Books of Note
- L. A. Times Book Award (nominee)
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
- Kansas State Reading Circle Catalog Senior High Level
- Sydney Taylor Book Award for Teen Readers
- National Jewish Book Award
- ALSC Notables List: Middle Grade Category
- ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults
- Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
- Booklist Editor’s Choice, Books for Youth
- Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Books of 2015
- Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books
- New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age
- New York Times Notable Children’s Book
- Horn Book Fanfare List
- Junior Library Guild Selection
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