Historical Fiction: The Hired Girl

The Hired Girl
By Laura Amy Schlitz

Schlitz, Laura Amy. Hired Girl: Novel. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2015. 9780763678180

Plot Summary

Joan Skraggs, a fourteen-year-old living at Steeple Hill Farm in Pennsylvania, longs for a better life. A life full of adventure, beauty, and art. Under the direction of a tyrannical father and with no help from her three brothers, Joan feels as if she is stuck in her loathsome life forever. After the devastating loss of her beloved books from Miss Chandler, Joan takes her doll Belinda and the money that her mother had saved for her and runs away to Baltimore. After a harrowing adventure getting to the city, she is rescued from sleeping in a park by Solomon Rosenbach. He takes her to his mother, who allows her to stay and become their hired girl, only if Malka the housekeeper likes her. Malka takes a liking to the strong and strong-willed girl, and Joan tries her very best to please her. Under the name Janet Lovelace, and pretending to be eighteen years old, she scrubs their floors, beats out their rugs, cooks their food and is their Shabbos goy. She struggles to learn about their Jewish faith while also becoming a true Catholic herself. She becomes close friends with their youngest daughter Mimi, and soon falls head-over-heels in love with their son David, as he flirtatiously takes her along on some adventures to the park and the opera. Temporarily forgetting her original ambitions, she fumbles and makes mistakes, causing conflict in the household often, before finally coming back around. Remembering her mother's wishes, she is more determined than ever to get her education and become a schoolteacher.

Analysis

Laura Amy Schlitz was inspired to write this novel by her grandmother's journal. It is written in a diary format, and is conversational. Each entry in the diary shows Joan/Janet's thought process and frame of mind. The characters are not necessarily likable, such as her father or the confusing Mrs. Rosenbach who may or may not like Joan/Janet that much at all, but they are necessary to the story, and help readers to really connect with Joan/Janet as she struggles to find herself in this strange new world. Set in the summer of 1911, there are some stereotypes or stereotypical words about people that Schlitz does address in the back of her book. She was attempting to stay true to the times, but also refrains from using the words more than the story called for. Joan/Janet's understanding of the world around shifts throughout the story as she learns more about her Jewish employers and realizes that she really ought to fix her "deportment." Exploring a different religion throughout this novel was bold, but it was done well. 

Joan/Janet's struggles to do what she thinks is right is something that many readers can relate to. Her feelings of vanity, shame, excitement at the prospects of love, and suddenly loss are felt strongly through the words in her diary. Using a diary format suited this story because it allowed readers to feel as if they were listening to a friend. Joan/Janet is just as clumsy, awkward, but real as they are.

Elizabeth Baskeyfield, writing in the School Librarian journal said, "The Hired Girl draws the reader in and throughout the story there were times I feared for Joan, cringed for her, was excited for her, and felt sad for her. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it most highly for students KS3 and over. Brilliant!"

Baskeyfield, Elizabeth. 2016. “The Hired Girl.” School Librarian 64 (1): 59. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.twu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brd&AN=113659104&site=ehost-live.

Awards

Scott O'Dell Award - 2016

National Jewish Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature - 2016

Sydney Taylor Book Award for Teen Readers - 2016

Connections

This book is a surprisingly interesting introduction into the differences in faith, and even information about the Jewish faith. Readers might be interested in keeping Google handy, to search for terms or holidays to better understand Joan's experiences.

For other books about the early 1900s:

Donnelly, Jennifer: A Northern Light. 9780152053109

Winters, Cat: The Cure for Dreaming. 9781419712166

Biggs Waller, Sharon: A Mad, Wicked Folly. 9780670014682