A Drowned Maiden's Hair

Laura Amy Schlitz

Maud Flynn is an orphan at the Barbary Asylum when the Hawthorne sisters choose her and take her home to live with them. They have some strange conditions, though. Maud is going to be their secret child. They give her pretty dresses, good food, and all the books she could want. But she isn't to come downstairs when other people are there and she is to stay away from the windows.

Maud remembers her mother, brother and sister. Her mother died when she was young, and her brother and sister were adopted when she was five. Now, at eleven, she grasps at the chance to be part of a family and accepts the conditions set on her. She learns proper grammar, etiquette, and manners. She becomes their "angel child". When they took her from the asylum free spirited Maud promised herself she would be "perfectly good" and not cause mischief. She does pretty well for quite a while, too. It helps that she makes a good friend of the deaf housekeeper. Maud helps Muffet learn to read and communicate beyond facial motions and hand signals.

When Maud is pulled into the family business, she is willing to learn. She doesn't understand all of it, but goes along. She knows it's how the sisters earn their keep. When they go to their home by the ocean, though, it's very hard to be perfectly good. It's harder still to be a secret child when she wants to go out and see the ocean and the amusement park and the outdoors. She doesn't want to disappoint the sisters, but can't stay confined much longer.

Maud in A Drowned Maiden's Hair reminds the read of Anne from Anne of Green Gables. The Hawthorne sisters are not like Matthew and Marilla, though. This story takes place in New England in 1909, when orphanages were also called asylums. Maud is strong willed and causes mischief. She is always in trouble at school.

Although Laura Amy Schlitz's first novel has high praise, I found it to be so-so. Maud is an engaging character. She has the spunk needed for a story like this. That is not enough to pull this story together for me. It's the story of triumph for the little guy. It's uplifting. And it never quite comes together for me. Perhaps that's because of its target audience age group - 8 to 12 or so. An author can't go as in depth for that age group. Perhaps it's because the two-faced character is strange and difficult to like or dislike until the end - when the true self is shown.

The book is OK. Kids will enjoy watching Maud win the day at the end. It's a cheer for Maud type ending.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery