The Hired Girlby Laura Amy Schlitz
Great YA novel that doesn't sacrifice depth for trendiness! It's a historical adventure so very real to life, starring a young woman who leaves a hopeless home and runs off to a glamorous job in the city....
Or not so much. She becomes the hired girl to a family of well-to-do but not exceptionally snooty working folk. The head of the family runs a business--clothing? or maybe furniture? I don't especially remember. But he keeps an excellent library of the classics and allows our heroine to wander there at will.
As she grows up, she encounters all the usual teenage girl emotions--wanting to have nice things, wanting to please people, friendship, first love--and also some emotions that aren't typically discussed in YA literature--a need to find religion, to stand up against injustice, and to make her place in a family. And to learn and be educated.
And on top of all that, it's not the slightest bit preachy.
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