YA book about orphan girl who goes to two families for the summer?
February 4, 2023 10:34 PM Subscribe
I’m looking for a book I read as a pre-teen about an orphaned girl who stays with two different families over one summer, and they both ask to adopt her.
The girl lives at a children’s ‘home’ and one summer she is invited to spend a few weeks with a single lady in a town, and (separately) then a few weeks with a family in the country. (It’s a philanthropic, ‘help an orphan’ type gesture, I think.)
Details I remember: the lady lives in a town somewhere (Boston?). The girl makes friends with neighbourhood kids and one of the activities she joins in with is making streetcars out of cardboard with stained glass ‘windows’ and putting lanterns inside then drawing them up the street at dusk. I think it was part of a local festival of some sort.
The family lives on a farm somewhere (Midwest?). They have a daughter the same age and the girls help out on the farm and play together. There are mentions of cold pitchers of lemonade and hayrides.
At one of the places (can’t remember which) they throw a welcome party for her and invite the neighbours. She is asked if she wants an angel’s food or devil’s food cake and she can’t decide, it’s all so luxurious for her. In the end they have both because ‘sugar and eggs are not expensive’.
At the end, she goes back to the orphanage. Then she’s called into the office - both families have offered to adopt her because they liked her so much, and she gets to choose. She is torn, but ultimately she picks the single lady because she figures the other people have their own daughter but the lady is lonely.
I know these are random details and it’s a long shot but I would so love to find this book! For context, I’m late 40s and read it when I was maybe 10-12.
Thanks in advance!!
The girl lives at a children’s ‘home’ and one summer she is invited to spend a few weeks with a single lady in a town, and (separately) then a few weeks with a family in the country. (It’s a philanthropic, ‘help an orphan’ type gesture, I think.)
Details I remember: the lady lives in a town somewhere (Boston?). The girl makes friends with neighbourhood kids and one of the activities she joins in with is making streetcars out of cardboard with stained glass ‘windows’ and putting lanterns inside then drawing them up the street at dusk. I think it was part of a local festival of some sort.
The family lives on a farm somewhere (Midwest?). They have a daughter the same age and the girls help out on the farm and play together. There are mentions of cold pitchers of lemonade and hayrides.
At one of the places (can’t remember which) they throw a welcome party for her and invite the neighbours. She is asked if she wants an angel’s food or devil’s food cake and she can’t decide, it’s all so luxurious for her. In the end they have both because ‘sugar and eggs are not expensive’.
At the end, she goes back to the orphanage. Then she’s called into the office - both families have offered to adopt her because they liked her so much, and she gets to choose. She is torn, but ultimately she picks the single lady because she figures the other people have their own daughter but the lady is lonely.
I know these are random details and it’s a long shot but I would so love to find this book! For context, I’m late 40s and read it when I was maybe 10-12.
Thanks in advance!!
Response by poster: Omg, this site is amazing and you are a genius! It was Adopted Jane! Thank you so much :)
posted by Salamander at 5:37 AM on February 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Salamander at 5:37 AM on February 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: It’s available on Open Library, but I can’t get the link to work. Thanks for asking this question—I loved reading it!
posted by corey flood at 11:43 AM on February 5, 2023
posted by corey flood at 11:43 AM on February 5, 2023
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posted by corey flood at 12:05 AM on February 5, 2023 [2 favorites]