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Harvey Girl


by Sheila Wood Foard

List Price: $16.95
Price: $12.71
You Save: $4.24 (25%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 528193
Studio: Texas Tech University Press
Binding: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Pages: 152
Publication Date: December 31, 1969
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
Wanted: Young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good moral character, attractive and intelligent, as waitresses in the Harvey Eating Houses on the Santa Fe Railroad in the West. Good wages with room and meals furnished. Liberal tips customary. Experience not necessary.

Harvey Girls served gourmet meals to passengers of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. During the late 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, Harvey Houses were a familiar sight to train travelers in the American West. There were one hundred Harvey Houses and about a hundred thousand Harvey Girls over the years. In a time when there were limited career choices for women, becoming a Harvey Girl offered rare independence for young ladies.

In 1919 one such Harvey Girl is feisty Clara Fern Massie, an Ozark farm girl who runs away from home on her fourteenth birthday after standing up to her harsh father. Heading west and taking a job as a waitress—a Harvey Girl—the underage Clara struggles to learn the demanding "Harvey Way" and shed her farm-girl image to become a confident, independent woman.



CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 4 reviews)

LOVED IT!!!  
I LOVED this book! It was such a fun read. I grew up loving the Judy Garland film The Harvey Girl, so I was excited to read this take on one of my favorite topics. It did not disappoint! I can't wait for the sequel!
October 01, 2008

Great for the classroom!  
Shelia Wood Foard has created a great resource for middle-grade teachers to use in their classroom. What better way to reach students than with literature that speaks to them and tells a story--a Harvey Girl's story at that! Children love to learn about the past, and they love stories. Foard's book does a wonderful job of both. Harvey Girl would be a great read aloud or an even better literature circle discussion book. Check it out today!
November 06, 2007

A Good Read for both young and old  
I enjoyed "Harvey Girl" very much. Foard is a good writer. She obviously knows her history but she also knows the value of a good story. Through the skillful use of fiction and the development of Claire, the main character,the entire era comes alive. I particularly liked the way in which the early twentieth century Ozarks culture and dialect were so faithfully portrayed. You'll like this story and learn some new things as well. I guarantee!
July 01, 2007

A Delicious Read  
Harvey Girl is as delicious as the gourmet food once served in Harvey Houses along the railways of the Southwest. Sheila Wood Foard sweeps readers into the past, in a story that both kids and adults will enjoy. Ride the rails with fourteen-year-old Clara Fern Massie as she runs away from her Ozark home to become a waitress in New Mexico and later at a Harvey House on the rim of the Grand Canyon. As she learns the "Harvey Way," Clara meets movie stars, famous suffragists, cowboys and Indians while secrets and lies threaten to send her home. I especially enjoyed watching Clara mature from a country girl to an independent, young woman. Harvey Girl is historical fiction at its best, a terrific read and ideal for classroom use.
April 26, 2006


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West
by Lesley Poling-Kempes

The Harvey House Cookbook, 2nd Edition: Memories of Dining Along the Santa Fe Railway
by George H. Foster

The Harvey Girls
Directed by George Sidney (II)
Starring Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Preston Foster
Turner Home Ent

Far from Home: West by Rail With the Harvey Girls Paper Dolls
by Lesley Poling-Kempes
by Lynette C. Ross

Dining By Rail: The History and Recipes of America's Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine
by James D. Porterfield

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