News & Events

Bookclub: The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schultz

by Josie Zeman

Shomrei Book Club

Hired GirlThe Shomrei Book Club will meet on Monday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 pm to discuss “The Hired Girl” by Laura Amy Schultz.

Published as a young adult novel, the book is based on a diary kept by 14-year-old Joan Skragg, who flees her oppressive life on a poor farm in Pennsylvania for a better future. She goes to work as a hired girl for a wealthy Jewish department
store family in Baltimore in 1911. There she learns about music, art, and genteel living as she explores new worlds and new ideas.

We welcome newcomers and look forward to sharing an interesting evening with this book.

Josie Zeman

All are welcome to join us. Contact Josie Zeman at  for more information if you are interested.

Buy the Book

Preview the book online

Note from Librarian Aileen Grossberg: Laura Amy Schlitz is Newbery Prize winning author. She also won the  2016 Sydney Taylor Award given by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Check out the following for an interview with Laura Amy Schlitz:

http://jewishbookcouncil.org/_blog/The_ProsenPeople/post/interview-laura-amy-schlitz/

  • Josie Zeman

    Josie Zeman joined Shomrei in 2007 (not sure) shortly after moving to Montclair to find a compatible community in retirement. She volunteers to do public relations outreach for Shomrei, helps in the office, and the kitchen, organizes sessions of the monthly Book Club, takes classes with the rabbi to learn all the things about Judaism that she never knew growing up in a Reform congregation in the South. She is proud to be a member of this dynamic synagogue!

    View all posts