Patty in the City

Patty Fairfield is sixteen years old and bored in the sleepy town of Vernondale, where nothing ever happens and everyone knows everyone else's business. When her family uproots their entire lives to move to New York City, Patty finds herself thrust into a world of electric streets, glittering shop windows, and the prestigious Oliphant School, where she must prove she belongs among wealthy classmates who were raised with advantages she cannot imagine. Armed with nothing but her spunky disposition and an unwavering determination to make a place for herself, Patty navigates subway cars and social hierarchies with equal parts nerve and vulnerability. Carolyn Wells captures perfectly that breathless moment when a young person steps off a train into a city that promises everything and demands everything in return. The novel pulses with early 1900s New York, from the clatter of horse-drawn carriages to the particular anxiety of wearing the wrong clothes to the wrong school. This is a story about finding your footing when the ground has completely shifted beneath you, told with warmth, humor, and the kind of pluck that makes you root for Patty from the very first page.