The Downstairs Girl

Chapter 1

Being nice is like leaving your door wide-open. Eventually, someone s going to mosey in and steal your best hat. Me, I have only one hat and it is uglier than a smashed crow, so if someone stole it, the joke would be on their head, literally. Still, boundaries must be set. Especially boundaries over one s worth.

Today I will demand a raise.

You re making that pavement twitchy the way you re staring at it. Robby Withers shines his smile on me. Ever since the traveling dentist who pulled Robby s rotting molar told him he would lose more if he didn t scrub his teeth regularly, he has brushed twice daily, and he expects me to do it, too.

Pavement is underappreciated for all it does to smooth the way, I tell his laughing eyes, which are brown like eagle s feathers, same as his skin. We should be more grateful.

Robby gestures grandly at the ground. Pavement, we re much obliged, despite all the patty cakes we dump on you. He pulls me away from a pile of manure. It was Robby s mother who nursed me when I was a baby, God rest her soul. And it was she who told Old Gin about the secret basement under the print shop.

Whitehall Street, the spine of Atlanta, rises well above the treetops with her stately brick and imposing stone buildings along with the occasional Victorian house that refuses to give up her seat at the table. Business is good here, and like the longleaf pine forests, being burned by Sherman s troops a quarter century ago only made the city grow back stronger.

You look different today. I pretend to appraise him from his cap to his tan trousers. You forget something? It is rare to see him without the mule and cart he uses as a deliveryman for Buxbaum s Department Store.

They re down a clerk. Mr. Buxbaum s letting me fill in until they find someone new. He straightens his pin-striped jacket, though it s already straight enough to measure with.

You don t say. Mr. Buxbaum is popular among whites and colored alike, but

Stacey Lee

A Reese's Book Club YA Pick
A New York Times Bestseller
An Indie Bestseller
A People Magazine Best Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Children s Book of the Year
One of NPR's Favorite Books of the Year
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors Choice
A BookPage Best Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year
A Crystal Kite Award Winner

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee is clever, poignant and funny. It s a bold portrait about a young Chinese-American woman named Jo who is faced with adversity and finds a creative way to use her voice for greater good. Reese Witherspoon

Vividly rendered, intriguingly plotted . . . Jo s example of resistance and hope is sure to resonate with today s readers. The Washington Post

Holds a mirror to our present issues while giving us a detailed and vibrant picture of life in the past. The New York Times

A joyful read . . . The Downstairs Girl, for all its serious and timely content, is a jolly good time. NPR

A triumph of storytelling. The Downstairs Girl is a bold portrait of this country s past, brilliantly painted with wit, heartbreak, and unflinching honesty. Everyone needs to read this book. Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

A gorgeous tale that will steal your heart. This is not only a keeper, but a classic! Robin LaFevers, New York Times bestselling author of the His Fair Assassin trilogy

A jewel of a story. By shining a light on the lives of those whom history usually ignores, Lee gives us a marvelous gift: An entirely new and riveting look at our past." Candace Fleming, award-winning author of The Family Romanov

Clever, funny, and poignant, The Downstairs Girl is Stacey Lee at her best.   Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling