The Hired Girl

The Hired Girl is a 2015 historical novel by Laura Amy Schlitz, published by Walker Books as a 392-page book.

Joan Skraggs is fourteen and has been keeping her father's house since her mother died. Her work is domestic and constant, and her interest in reading and in her own education is the one thing the household does not support, which is why her father's decision to end her schooling is the event that prompts her to leave. The novel describes her progression from runaway to paid domestic worker. The farm is just outside Lancaster, and Joan is the household's servant in all but name, cooking and cleaning for her father and her three brothers with no prospect of school or of reading for her own sake.

The book is told through a series of journal entries. That form lets the novel handle her opinions directly. Schlitz writes for young adult readers, and the book's use of a working girl's wage and living arrangements as plot mechanics is what makes it a historical novel rather than a period romance. The book is written as a journal, so her opinions arrive directly and the household is always seen from the position of the person doing its work.