The Hired Girl

Starred review from July 13, 2015
Desperate for the education her father denies her on their Pennsylvania farm, 14-year-old Joan runs away to Baltimore in 1911, where a well-to-do Jewish family hires her to help their obstinate, aging housekeeper. Schlitz (Splendors & Glooms) has crafted another exquisite literary gem, one told entirely via Joan’s vivid, humorous, and emotionally resonant diary entries over a year and a half. Through Joan’s naïve perspective, Schlitz frankly discusses class, religion, women’s education, art, literature, and romance. Joan has trouble reconciling her devout Catholic faith with Judaism, mixing up kashrut and even attempting to convert her employers. Yet because Joan is a hard worker, the Rosenbachs are forgiving and good to her, even encouraging her to read from their library. Joan is reminiscent of heroines like Anne Shirley, Jo March, Cassandra Mortmain, and her own favorite character, Jane Eyre (Joan even gives herself a fittingly literary alias, Janet Lovelace). Her overactive imagination, passions, and impulsive disregard for propriety often get Joan into trouble, but these same qualities will endear her to readers everywhere. Ages 12–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management.

Starred review from March 1, 2016
Gr 7 Up-Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs is forced to quit school, much to her dismay, in order to help out on Steeple Farms, where her father and three brothers work. Having lost her mother at an early age, Joan finds herself struggling to do all the chores for the men-cooking, cleaning, washing, and any other chore her father assigns her. Joan's only escape from the daily grind and drudgery of cleaning out privies and wringing out laundry is her love of books, which her teacher gave her when she left school. Joan longs for adventure and true love just like the heroine in her favorite book, "Jane Eyre". She yearns for a life away from the farm, and because there is no one else to whom she can divulge her feelings, she pours out her heart into her diary. While the novel is told entirely in diary format, Rachel Botchan's excellent reading of Joan's emotions, dreams, and yearnings will keep readers captivated. The story of a young girl searching for and finally discovering a world away from the farm is not a unique one, but Botchan's narration elevates this portrayal of a vibrant, interesting, resourceful young lady who strives to take advantage of what the world has to offer in 1911. VERDICT Highly recommended. ["Coming-of-age drama and deeper questions of faith, belonging, and womanhood are balanced with just the right blend of humor": "SLJ" 8/15 starred review of the Candlewick book.]-"Sheila Acosta, San Antonio"

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 15, 2015
Joan runs away from home at age 14 to become a hired girl in 1911. Life with her unpleasant father and brothers on their farm in Pennsylvania is rough. Knowing she is not loved, she sees escape when she learns that the going rate for a hired girl in the city is $6 a week. She lands in Baltimore over her head and is rescued by the Rosenbachs. A large young woman, Joan presents herself as Janet, 18, impressing Mrs. Rosenbach with her love of reading, quickly making herself indispensable to the aging housekeeper, and landing a job as a hired girl and "Shabbos goy." Joan is smart, hardworking, and naive, but most of all, she's romantic, thanks in large part to all those novels. The Rosenbachs' flirty son David seems to love her both for her mind and-as an aspiring artist-her looks. "Tall and robust and wholesome looking. You're like one of Michelangelo's Sibyls-a grand, bareheaded creature." Trouble ensues, but a happy ending awaits, with friendship and the awesome glint of an independent life. The diary format allows Joan's romantic tendencies full rein, as well as narrative latitude for a few highly improbable scenarios and wildly silly passion. Tons of period details, especially about clothing, round out a highly satisfying and smart breast-clutcher from this Newbery-winning author. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Starred review from July 1, 2015
Grades 7-10 *Starred Review* Growing up on a hardscrabble farm, Joan learned to avoid her cruel father, but she adored her mother, who encouraged her to work hard, study her lessons, and earn her own way in the world. In 1911, after Ma's death, 14-year-old Joan clashes with her father and flees to Baltimore. Representing herself as 18, she is taken into the household of a wealthy Jewish family as a hired girl. Joan works hard to please the Rosenbachs and their beloved, aging housekeeper, the testy Malka. Over the next few months, the girl makes her share of mistakes: eavesdropping, meddling, developing crushes on her employers' sons, and even setting her hair on fire (while reading by candlelight). True to her age, she becomes infatuated with two young men and also struggles with religion. Skipping forward a year, the last chapter offers a hopeful ending. Written as a diary, the first-person narrative brings immediacy to Joan's story and intimacy to her confessions and revelations. The distinctive household setting and the many secondary characters are well developed, while Joan comes alive on the page as a vulnerable, good-hearted, and sometimes painfully self-aware character struggling to find her place in the world. A memorable novel from a captivating storyteller. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The award-winning, best-selling Schlitz seems to have the Midas touch. Expect her latest to have a golden shine as well.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2016
Schlitz's epistolary novel, set in 1911, follows fourteen-year-old Catholic farmgirl Joan -- thirsty for education and refinement -- as she runs away to Baltimore and is taken on as a hired girl in a wealthy, cultured Jewish household. Joan is bright but impetuous and absurdly romantic (blame Jane Eyre) -- and her coming of age includes many struggles of conscience, mortifying missteps, and painful corrections and revelations. Botchan's narration of Joan's diary entries is always sympathetic yet gives a clear sense of the teen's immaturity, naivete, ignorance of the world, and constantly fluctuating emotions and opinions. Botchan's characterizations are mostly subtle (with the exception of that of Mr. Rosenbach, which in the early tracks verges on stereotype); she conveys the book's considerable humor and pathos without exaggerating them. An excellent way for teen listeners to experience the winner of the 2015 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. martha v. parravano

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2015
In 1911, spirited fourteen-year-old Joan, the only girl in a family of three boys plus a verbally abusive father (her weak-of-constitution mother has died), musters her courage and leaves her rural Pennsylvania home for Baltimore, the final straw being her father's burning of her few precious books. Once in the city, and with no real plan for survival, Joan is fortunate to be taken in by a kindly, well-to-do Jewish family, the Rosenbachs. She's employed as their hired girl, acting as assistant to longtime (and grumpy) domestic Malka and serving as the observant family's Shabbos goy, performing household tasks forbidden to Jews during the Sabbath. Over the course of the story, Joan, wide-eyed and open-hearted: meddles in the eldest Rosenbach son's love affairs (luckily, it all works out); very ill-advisedly attempts to convert the family's young grandson to Catholicism; makes something of an enemy of the lady of the house; and falls helplessly in love with the Rosenbachs' younger son, an artist who persuades her to pose for himas Joan of Arc. The book is framed as Joan's diary, and her weaknesses, foibles, and naivete come through as clearlyand as frequentlyas her hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The pacing can be a little slow (she doesn't even get to Baltimore, where the bulk of the story takes place, until almost eighty pages in), but by the end readers feel as if they've witnessed the real, authentic growth of a memorable young woman. elissa gershowitz

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from August 1, 2015

Gr 6-9-Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs is a reluctant drudge on her family's farm, and no one appreciates her. She pours her thoughts and emotions into her diary, which is the lens through which readers experience her life. And life on her family's 1911 hardscrabble Pennsylvania farm grinds on endlessly. She loves to read and longs for more education, but is trapped by her circumstances. Her boorish father pushes Joan too far the day he burns her best friends-her books. Soon afterward, she escapes and makes her way to Baltimore. She is taken in by a wealthy Jewish family as a hired girl. They are like no family she has ever met; their affection, religion, and education bind them into a warm unit totally foreign to Joan. She grows to love the family and is surprised and hurt to learn of anti-Semitism. She learns-sometimes through near disaster-about keeping kosher, navigating social classes, and first love. Her world expands as she encounters art, music, and literature. Joan is a well-defined character who makes impetuous, sometimes humorous, mistakes like any teenager. Her diary is written with the emotions and thoughts of a teen, but with the literary structure of one trying to affect an older and more educated sensibility. Readers are treated to a domestic education as Joan describes the incredible amount of work required to keep house in the early 20th century. Coming-of-age drama and deeper questions of faith, belonging, and womanhood are balanced with just the right blend of humor. VERDICT A wonderful look into the life of strong girl who learns that she needs the love of others to truly grow up.-Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.