Written in diary format, "The Hired Girl" by Laura Amy Schlitz tells of two years in the life of Joan Skraggs, a 14-year-old girl who runs away from the only home she's ever known, Steeple Farm in Pennsylvania, in July 1911. She yearns for further education and refinement, which she is certain won't be found while cleaning out the chicken coop and the privy. Her hope is finding a position as a "hired girl" in Baltimore will bring her within reach of her dreams and goals.
When Joan began school at age 7, she was labeled exceptionally bright by her teacher, who had never had a child learn to read so quickly. However, her only champion, her mother, dies when Joan is 10 years old, and with her die all the plans the two of them made for Joan's future. Her father allows her only a few more years of school before he forces her to quit so she can do more work on the farm. He describes her as "an ox of a girl," and that's how she sees herself: tall for her age, muscled and strong from years of hard, physical labor. As Joan explains, "Even my hair is ox colored, reddish brown and neither curly nor straight."
Joan, with characteristic wry humor, chafes against the drudgery she sees unfurling before her - "Years and years of it: washing and ironing and scrubbing out the privy, cooking and scouring and feeding and mending, everything the same, day after day, season after season, working myself to death, as Ma did. Only Ma wasn't strong, it'll be years before the work kills me." Neither her father nor her three brothers acknowledge, let alone appreciate, all she does for them.
Joan finally manages to leave her old life behind and finds herself in much-improved circumstances as the hired girl for a Jewish household, which brings with it many opportunities for missteps on Joan's part. These missteps stem from Joan's ignorance about the religious and cultural traditions of a Jewish family, herself having been brought up Catholic on an isolated farm.
Other misunderstandings on Joan's part are generally humorous, of her own making and can be chalked up almost entirely to the romantic notions she has picked up from numerous re-readings of her favorite book, "Jane Eyre." She's also trying to pass as an 18-year-old - no small feat for someone who's actually 14 and not at all wise to the ways of a world she's had very little interaction with until now.
Schlitz, with a deft and gentle hand, touches on many topics in "The Hired Girl" - religion, feminism, education, self-determination, classism and anti-Semitism, mainly through numerous well-rounded and interesting characters.
This is a charming and wonderful book. Joan is a delightful character and I miss her still, a week after finishing the book. Too many books these days have unnecessary sequels, but Joan is one character I would be thrilled to read more about.
Lisa Sanning is adult services librarian at Missouri River Regional Library.