Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School: The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls
Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School: The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls
It's 1910, and fifteen-year-old Grace Harlowe is starting freshman year at Oakdale High with her two best friends by her side. She's confident, athletic, and possesses the rare gift of genuine kindness. When shy new girl Anne Pierson arrives dressed in unfashionable clothes, the other students turn away. Grace reaches out. This simple act sets her on a collision course with Miriam Nesbit, the class queen bee who rules through cruelty and isn't about to let some newcomer threaten her throne. As basketball teams form, class elections loom, and Anne's mysterious background slowly reveals itself, Grace must navigate the treacherous waters of adolescent hierarchy while staying true to herself. The humor feels distinctly period (talk of streetcars and silent movies), but the emotional terrain is startlingly familiar: the ache to belong, the terror of being different, the complex loyalties of teenage friendship. Chase writes with brisk efficiency, giving readers exactly what they came for: a heroine worth rooting for, a worthy adversary, and the comforting promise that kindness can be its own kind of power.
