For young adults considering a future in the arts, Mann's memoir is a visceral experience of that life's risks and triumphs.
An inside look at a horrific ordeal ripped from the headlines that will be devoured by teens.

A wonderful look into the life of strong girl who learns that she needs the love of others to truly grow up.—
Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MIIn 1911, spirited fourteen-year-old Joan, the only girl in a family of three boys plus a verbally abusive father (her weak-of-constitution mother has died), musters her courage and leaves her rural Pennsylvania home for Baltimore, the final straw being her father’s burning of her few precious books. Once in the city, and with no real plan for survival, Joan is fortunate to be taken in by a kindly, well-to-do Jewish family, the Rosenbachs. She’s employed as their “hired girl,” acting as assistant to longtime (and grumpy) domestic Malka and serving as the observant family’s “Shabbos goy,” performing household tasks forbidden to Jews during the Sabbath. Over the course of the story, Joan, wide-eyed and open-hearted: meddles in the eldest Rosenbach son’s love affairs (luckily, it all works out); very ill-advisedly attempts to convert the family’s young grandson to Catholicism; makes something of an enemy of the lady of the house; and falls helplessly in love with the Rosenbachs’ younger son, an artist who persuades her to pose for him…as Joan of Arc. The book is framed as Joan’s diary, and her weaknesses, foibles, and naiveté come through as clearly—and as frequently
Fans of period pieces and crime dramas will be pleased with this haunting tale.
Romance fans will love the relationship between the protagonists and be sucked into the story line of the circumstances that bring them together.
While best suited for mature teens, this novel will do well in YA collections where dark, realistic fiction is in demand.
This will have appeal to readers who are interested in the history of dance or the antebellum period of American history.
Not a stand-alone, this book will appeal to fans of the series, romance, and the Brigadoon musical.
Recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction with a dose of fantastical science.
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