A Little Girl in Old New York

A tender portrait of childhood on the cusp of modern America. Hannah Ann Underhill is seven years old, small and delicate, with a childlike wonder that makes even a visit to the city feel like entering a magical realm. When her father poses the question that will change everything - "How would you like to go to New York to live, little girl?" - we watch a young mind grapple with the enormous, exciting, terrifying prospect of leaving the familiar hills of Yonkers for the humming chaos of Manhattan. Amanda M. Douglas writes childhood with psychological precision: the way Hannah studies her father's face to see if he's "making fun," the quiet pride a well-trained Victorian child takes in obedience without asking "Why?," the aching tenderness of a mother separated from her daughter for a fortnight. This is a book about that specific childhood moment when the world begins to expand beyond what little hands can hold, and a girl must learn who she is in a place where no one knows her name.