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Lyddie

Katherine Paterson · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

The Midwife's Apprentice

Karen Cushman · 122 pages

In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.

Finding PurposeUnderdogWorking-Class ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
❤️

Bud, Not Buddy

Christopher Paul Curtis · 249 pages

It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase filled with his own important, secret things. 2. He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but

UnderdogFinding PurposeClass StruggleSelf-Discovery
❤️

Tipping the Velvet

Sarah Waters · 480 pages

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-h

Working-Class ProtagonistClass StruggleFeminismSelf-Discovery
❤️

The Good Earth

Pearl S. Buck · 316 pages

This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought

Working-Class ProtagonistUnderdogClass StruggleFeminism
❤️

Me Before You

Jojo Moyes · 451 pages

Louisa Clark is an ordinary young woman living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cann

Finding PurposeWorking-Class ProtagonistClass StruggleSelf-Discovery
❤️

Princess Academy

Shannon Hale · 314 pages

Working-Class ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryUnderdogClass Struggle
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The Story of a New Name

Elena Ferrante · 480 pages

In 2012, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker’s James Wood described as “large, captivating, amiably peopled...a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal,” F

Working-Class ProtagonistClass StruggleSelf-DiscoveryFeminism
❤️

The Rent Collector

Camron Wright · 249 pages

Sang Ly struggles to survive by picking through garbage in Cambodia's largest municipal dump. Under threat of eviction by an embittered old drunk who is charged with collecting rents from the poor of Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly embarks on a desperate journey to save her ailing son from a life of ignorance and poverty.

Working-Class ProtagonistFinding PurposeClass StruggleSelf-Discovery
❤️

Work: A Story of Experience

Louisa May Alcott · 388 pages

In this story of a woman's search for a meaningful life, Alcott moves outside the family setting of her best knows works. Originally published in 1872, Work is both an exploration of Alcott's personal conflicts and a social critique, examining women's independence, the moral significance of labor, and the goals to which a woman can aspire. Influenced by Transcendentalism and by the women's rights

Finding PurposeWorking-Class ProtagonistFeminismSelf-Discovery
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A Single Shard

Linda Sue Park · 152 pages

In this Newbery Medal-winning book set in 12th century Korea, Tree-ear, a 13-year-old orphan, lives under a bridge in Ch’ulp’o, a potters' village famed for delicate celadon ware. He has become fascinated with the potter’s craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday. When Min takes Tree-ear on as his helper, Tree-ear is ela

UnderdogFinding PurposeWorking-Class ProtagonistMiddle Grade
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith · 443 pages

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchant

Working-Class ProtagonistUnderdogClass StruggleHistorical Fiction
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The Secret School

Avi · 157 pages

More than anything, Ida Bidson wants to become a teacher. To do that, she needs to finish eighth grade so she can go on to high school. But when the one-room school in Ida’s remote Colorado town closes unexpectedly, that dream seems unattainable. Her only hope is to keep the school open without anyone finding out. Yet even a secret school needs a teacher. Ida can’t be it. . . . Or can she? In t

UnderdogFinding PurposeFeminismMiddle Grade
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The Bookbinder

Pip Williams · 437 pages

Working-Class ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryFeminismHistorical Fiction
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I Am the Messenger

Markus Zusak · 386 pages

Working-Class ProtagonistUnderdogFinding PurposeSelf-Discovery
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The Other Bennet Sister

Janice Hadlow · 463 pages

Finding PurposeSelf-DiscoveryFeminismHistorical Fiction
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Where the Sky Begins

Rhys Bowen · 364 pages

Finding PurposeWorking-Class ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryHistorical Fiction
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Hattie Ever After

Kirby Larson

In 1919, seventeen-year-old Hattie leaves the Montana prairie--and her sweetheart Charlie--to become a female reporter in San Francisco.

Finding PurposeSelf-DiscoveryFeminismMiddle Grade
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Half Broke Horses

Jeannette Walls · 313 pages

It is 1970 in a small town in California. "Bean" Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decay

Working-Class ProtagonistUnderdogFeminismHistorical Fiction
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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich · 240 pages

The author's experience holding low-wage jobs in three parts of the U.S. in the late 1990s.

Working-Class ProtagonistWorkplace CultureClass StruggleFeminism
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A Northern Light

Jennifer Donnelly · 396 pages

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Finding PurposeWorking-Class ProtagonistFeminismHistorical Fiction
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The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Tamora Pierce · 256 pages

On her first tour as a knight errant, Alanna assumes a position of influence with a fierce desert tribe, makes some changes in the role of women in the society, and continues her own emotional development. "Let her prove herself worthy as a man." Newly knighted, Alanna of Trebond seeks adventure in the vast desert of Tortall. Captured by fierce desert dwellers, she is forced to prove herself

UnderdogSelf-DiscoveryFeminismClass Struggle
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By the Shores of Silver Lake

Laura Ingalls Wilder · 290 pages

The Ingalls family had fared badly in Plum Creek, Minnesota. They were in debt. Mary was blind now. So Pa went West to work at a railroad camp in Dakota Territory where he could make as much as fifty dollars a month! Then he sent for his wife and four children, and they became the first settlers in the new town of De Smet. But the railroad brought hordes of land-hungry people from the East. Had Pa

Working-Class ProtagonistMiddle GradeUnderdogClass Struggle
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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

Kate Moore · 480 pages

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" were conside

Working-Class ProtagonistWorkplace CultureFeminismFemale Lead
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Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser · 450 pages

Young Caroline Meeber leaves home for the first time and experiences work, love, and the pleasures and responsibilities of independence in late-nineteenth-century Chicago and New York.

Working-Class ProtagonistClass StruggleSelf-DiscoveryFeminism
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