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Overview
Overview
From the critically-acclaimed author of Under a Painted Sky and Outrun the Moon and founding member of We Need Diverse Books comes a powerful novel about identity, betrayal, and the meaning of family. "This vividly rendered historic novel will keep readers riveted as witty, observant Jo deals with the dangers of questioning power." --The Washington Post By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South. A Washington Post Best Children's Book of the Year "Holds a mirror to our present issues while giving us a detailed and vibrant picture of life in the past." --The New York Times "A joyful read . . . The Downstairs Girl, for all its serious and timely content, is a jolly good time." --NPR
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Lee, Stacey
- ISBN: 9781524740979
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 8.20 x 1.10
- Number Of Pages: 400
- Publication Year: 2021
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“You can tell a lot about what someone values by what they hide...A blessing loves a good disguise.”
Jennifer E. - 5 years 6 months ago“You can tell a lot about what someone values by what they hide...A blessing loves a good disguise.” Chinese-American Jo Kuan and her grandfather Old Gin conceal themselves in the basement of the family who runs one of the town’s newspapers. “Perhaps when you live in a basement, you get used to a low ceiling.” When their dwelling is revealed, the reader is compelled to ponder what secrets lie in the basements of all of us. “Though I know well the fence that corral us into our designated squares, I also know there are the chains we are born into, and those we choose to wear...Maybe what she wants is not for doors to open but for the walls to come down. When one grows up with walls, it is difficult to dream of a world beyond...Without the walls, we could be like the spider who can go anywhere she wants.” Millinery gave her a way to be seen; her anonymous advice column Miss Sweetie gave her a voice to be heard. But maybe what Jo needed most was simply the freedom to walk out from the shadow of her hat. Abandoned by her parents as the result of an interracial affair, Jo and her grandfather managed to fit themselves into “a society that, like a newspaper, rarely comes in colors other than black and white. There will always be those who keep their distance. But there will always also be those who don’t mind riding” their bicycles in the same lane. Jo has spent her whole life worrying that the sound of her own voice might give her away, but she discovers that if she hadn’t used her voice, she wouldn’t have reached the climax of her story: a horse race in which she is the only female rider with the only mare with her family legacy at stake. The Downstairs Girl rides in an uphill race surrounded by the cloak of community: “once you are a part of it, you tie your fate to the threads closest to you.” This is a story of friendship, of words, of skill, of protection, and, most of all, of hearing the faint cries of someone who needs you and not turning away. A tribute to all the top-shelf hat women throughout history. Pairs well with a pinch of pepper, the secret ingredient, that cures all ills.