Okay just let me have a moment here… you guys know how much I love books, but this book, oh people this book!

If I was only allowed to have one book for the rest of my life this book would be high on my list.

I give this book 100 stars out of 10.  There is few books I would rate higher. (If you really want to know what’s higher go read this review I did on my mom’s site.

Number ! priority right now though. What is a Harvey Girl? First you need to know what a Harvey house is: Read Me!   Harvey Girls were basically waitresses.  In 1883, Fred Harvey implemented a policy of employing a female, white-only serving staff. He sought single, well-mannered, and educated American ladies, and placed ads in newspapers throughout the East Coast and Midwest for “white, young women, 18-30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent”. The girls were paid $17.50 a month (approximately $450 in 2017 dollars) to start, plus room, board, and gratuity, a generous income by the standards of the time. 

(italicized content is from Wikipedia)

Anyways this book is about Molly a 13 year old girl from Streator, Illinois.  When her father dies she and her 19 year old sister Colleen move to New Mexico to become Harvey Girls. Poor Molly though only 13 has to act like she’s 18.

At first Molly hates being a Harvey Girl and isn’t very good at it, but eventually she gets the hang of things. When Molly hates New Mexico she writes love letters from Colleen to Mr. Latterly, a traveling salesman who likes Molly’s sister. In New Mexico Molly and Colleen start to make a new life, and new friends.  Molly makes friends with the head chef and his assistants who are closer to her real age even when she isn’t supposed to.  Then somebody starts suspecting Molly is not who she seems to be, a train breaks down, and Mr. Latterly comes to take Colleen away.

What will happen?  Will Mr. Latterly take Colleen to be his bride?  Will everyone find out who Molly really is?

Let me know what you think!