The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls -- J. Anderson Coats, Hardcover

A child of immigrants feels caught between two worlds and two selves in this powerful, luminous middle grade historical novel about self-determination, community, and what it means to belong--perfect for fans of Esperanza Rising and Katherine Marsh's The Lost Year.

When your family comes from Eastern Europe, you get used to being called a Bohunk--someone who's ignorant, lazy, and still has Old World farm dirt in their ears. Someone from a place that people don't care enough about to learn its real name.

Stanislava feels stuck in her deeply traditional Slovene community in Colorado in 1910. But when she finds a library book about an immigrant girl's college adventure, she discovers a dazzling world of opportunity. She's desperate to be like the book's heroine, Katinka, who starts life anew as Katie and is seemingly living the American dream. So, like Katie, Stanislava adopts an "American" name: Sylvia.

Sylvia fantasizes about escaping her claustrophobic life and going off to college--until her dreams are shattered when her older sister, Stina, elopes with a man their family disapproves of. Now Sylvia finds herself at a crossroads: quit school to fill Stina's role as the family's caretaker or run away from home. Stanislava would do the former. But Sylvia is determined to be free...

Author: J. Anderson Coats
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Size: 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9781665968614
Audience: Ages 9-12

Review Citation(s):
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 07/01/2025
Publishers Weekly 06/16/2025

About the Author
J. Anderson Coats has master's degrees in history and library science and has published short stories in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. She is the author of the acclaimed novels The Wicked and the Just, The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, R Is for Rebel, The Green Children of Woolpit, and The Night Ride, as well as A Season Most Unfair and The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls. She lives with her family in Washington State. Visit her at JAndersonCoats.com.