Joan the main character of the book, “The Hired Girl,” by Laura Amy Schlitz has the imagination of a writer as she is introduced to language and stories as a young child. The first time she hears Thumbelina read aloud she cries out, “please read it again!” A new world of delight and magic has been opened up to her, and she will never go back henceforth. She discovers new friendships full of light and life in the only three books she owns. Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, and Dombey and Sons. From whom she draws on them for strength and hope in a new and motherless world Joan descends into as she deals with the loss of her Mother who worked until her early death of exhaustion. Joan who loves nothing more than to tuck herself away at night and read Jane Eyre and write in her diary, dreams of becoming a teacher. Just like her mother always wanted, “You’ll have money and respect and you won’t have to work yourself to death.” Education is not as important to her father who blames Joan for just about everything. And when she tries to improve the standards of living on their family farm Joan and her Father inevitably clash. Which inevitably lead to her leaving home, in search of work for a hired girl. Using the money her mother stowed away for her, she starts a new life in Baltimore and a kind Jewish family takes her in and gives her a life earning money for herself. This book is a wondrous and delightful read, full of wonder and through her mistakes and ups and downs she learns what is right and wrong. She clings steadfastly to her Catholic religion, the one her mother passed down to her. And her purity and steadfastness surprise many people, as she accepts the Rosenbaums as her own family. Even though a great gap of religion and status stands between them. This is the story of hardship, desire to learn, perseverance and kindness.