Read by Rachel Botchan and Tom Picasso

Laura Amy Schlitz brings her delicious wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a moving yet comedic tour de force. Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself-because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of-a woman with a future. Laura Amy Schlitz relates Joan's journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!), taking readers on an exploration of housework and literature; love and loyalty; cats, hats, and bunions

Mode of access: World Wide Web