The Downstairs Girl

Jo Kuan spends her days toiling as a ladies maid for one of the most demanding young women in Atlanta.  Miss Caroline is never satisfied with anything, and she always seems to have some plot to chafe against her mother's wishes.  This makes life difficult for Jo, but she has worked in the house practically her whole life, and the rest of the servants are like family to her.

In the evenings, Jo returns to the home she shares with Old Jin, the man who took her in as an infant and raised her.  They live in secret beneath a newspaper printshop in rooms that were once part of the underground railroad.  This secret life isn't easy, but it's the only home Jo knows.  Plus, she likes to uncover the secret speaking tube and listen to the conversations of the Bell family who publishes the newspaper.  Listening to them over the years has developed her vocabulary and kept her up to date on the news.  She also feels like she knows their son, Nathaniel, even though he would never recognize Jo.

Jo has another secret.  She is Miss Sweetie, the Agony Aunt for the Bell's newspaper.  No one knows her identity, but she writes opinion pieces and answers advice letters in a way that has all of Atlanta talking.  As hard as it is for the black citizens of 1890's Atlanta, in some ways it's harder for Chinese people.  They don't seem to fit in any level of society.  Perhaps this is why Jo is compelled to dig for the truth about her own history, but that search will leave her at the mercy of one of Atlanta's most dangerous men.  For a girl with so many secrets, Jo certainly is leaving her mark on the world.

I heard Stacey Lee talk about this book at TLA back in April, and I knew I had to read it.  I didn't know anything about the influx of Chinese immigrants brought to the south to replace the newly freed slaves.  This is a well-plotted historical novel about a girl who refuses to bend to societal expectations.  It may take a more sophisticated reader to appreciate it, though.  Recommended for grades 8 and up simply for text complexity.

SPOILERS!  Also, I want a sequel where Jo and Nathaniel get married and move to New York and start their own newspaper there!