The Hired Girl

By Laura Amy Schlitz

Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her delicious wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a moving yet comedic tour de force.

A humorous coming-of-age story that will appeal to fans of Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, 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 remote 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. 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.

Categories: Fiction

For readers aged: 12+

Publication details:
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781406361407
Published: 01 Oct 2015
Price: £12.99

Size: 216 x 152 mm
Pages: 400

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Reviews

'The Hired Girl is a moving yet comic tour de force set in early 20th-century America.' The Bookseller Children's Buyer's Guide

'Through vivid language, historical details and emotional resonance, Schlitz creates a story that takes readers on Joan’s 1911 journey where she contemplates class, feminism, literature and religion.' Inis Reading Guide

'…the strength of the novel lies in its dissection of the hurdles to be overcome in relationships that attempt to cross class boundaries, and the detail of the servant class’s lack of privacy and autonomy. Joan/Janet is funny and fascinating […] and is refreshingly real in her desire for new clothes alongside thirst for knowledge.' The Observer

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