Super Short Summary

In The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz, fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs escapes her abusive father and miserable life on a Pennsylvania farm to Baltimore, where she works for the Rosenbach family, a wealthy Jewish household. Through diary entries, Joan, now calling herself Janet Lovelace, navigates challenges of religious and class differences, discovering herself and her future aspirations. The novel includes themes of emotional and physical abuse and predatory behavior.