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Lexile/Reading Level
Recommended for 9-12 Grade & Adult

Genre/Category
Biographies | Nonfiction

Historical Time Period
Modern
Date
1920s
Topic
British Literature | Servants
Geographic Region
England | Europe
Main Character
Woman/Women
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey”

Author: Powell, Margaret

Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants portrayed in Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, Margaret Powell’s classic memoir of her time in service, Below Stairs, is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high. Powell first arrived at the servants’ entrance of one of those great houses in the 1920s. As a kitchen maid – the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids’ curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlormaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress’s nephew, Margaret’s tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation. Margaret Powell’s true story of a life spent in service is a fascinating “downstairs” portrait of the glittering, long-gone worlds behind the closed doors of Downton Abbey and 165 Eaton Place.

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Lexile/Reading Level
Recommended for 9-12 Grade & Adult

Genre/Category
Biographies | Nonfiction

Historical Time Period
Modern
Date
1920s
Topic
British Literature | Memoirs | Servants
Geographic Region
England | Europe
Main Character
Woman/Women
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Servants’ Hall: A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance

Author: Powell, Margaret

Margaret Powell’s Below Stairs, a servant’s firsthand account of life in the great houses of England, became a sensation among readers reveling in the luxury and subtle class warfare of Masterpiece Theatre’s hit television series Downton Abbey. In Servants’ Hall, another true slice of life from a time when armies of servants lived below stairs simply to support the lives of those above, Powell tells the true story of Rose, the under-parlourmaid to the Wardham Family at Redlands, who took a shocking step: She eloped with the family’s only son, Mr. Gerald.

Going from rags to riches, Rose finds herself caught up in a maelstrom of gossip, incredulity and envy among her fellow servants. The reaction from upstairs was no better: Mr. Wardham, the master of the house, disdained the match so completely that he refused ever to have contact with the young couple again. Gerald and Rose marry, leave Redlands and Powell looks on with envy, even as the marriage hits on bumpy times: “To us in the servants’ hall, it was just like a fairy tale . . . How I wished I was in her shoes.”

Once again bringing that lost world to life, Margaret Powell trains her pen and her gimlet eye on her “betters” in this next chapter from a life spent in service. Servants’ Hall is Margaret Powell at her best—a warm, funny and sometimes hilarious memoir of life at a time when wealthy families like ruled England.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
Recommended for 9-12 Grade & Adults

Genre/Category
Fiction | Historical | Magic

Historical Time Period
Early Modern
Date
1700s
Topic
Servants | Slavery | Voodoo
Geographic Region
Haiti | Latin America | Louisiana | United States - America
Main Character
Woman/Women
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel

Author: Allende, Isabel

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarité — known as Tété — is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tété finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves.

When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it’s with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father’s plantation, Saint-Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride — but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.

Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
Recommended for 9-12 Grade & Adult

Genre/Category
Fiction | Historical

Historical Time Period
Early Modern
Date
1600s
Topic
Culture and Traditions | Family Relationships | Growing Up - Coming of Age | Servants
Geographic Region
Iran | Middle East | Persia
Main Character
Woman/Women
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Blood of Flowers: A Novel

Author: Amirrezvani, Anita

In the fabled city of Isfahan, in seventeenth-century Persia, a young woman confronts a dismal fate: Her beloved father had died and left her without a dowry. Forced to work as a servant in the home of her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the Shah, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim, and she finds herself faced with a daunting decision–to forsake her own dignity or to risk everything in an effort to maintain it.

Both a sweeping love story and a luminous portrait of a city, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the mesmerizing historical novel of an ill-fated young woman whose gift as a rug designer transforms her life. Illuminated with glorious detail of Persian rug-making, and brilliantly bringing to life the sights sounds and life of 17th-century Isfahan, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS has captured readers’ imaginations everywhere as a timeless tale of one woman’s struggle to live a life of her choosing.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
610L

Genre/Category
Fiction | Historical | Realistic

Historical Time Period
Modern
Date
1900s
Topic
Friendship | Servants
Geographic Region
United States - America
Main Character
Girl(s)
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Meet Samantha: An American Girl (American Girls: Samantha #1)

Author: Adler, Susan S.Part of a Series: American Girls: Samantha

Samantha Parkington is a bright Victorian beauty being raised by her wealthy grandmother in 1904. Samantha’s stories describe her life during this important period of change. Her own world is filled with frills and finery, parties and play. But Samantha sees that times are not good for everybody. That’s why she tries to make a difference in the life of her friend Nellie, a servant girl whose world is nothing like Samantha’s Samantha befriends a servant girl named Nellie who moves in next door. The girls become fast friends, though their lives are different.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
630L

Genre/Category
Fantasy | Fiction | Historical | Mystery

Historical Time Period
History of England | Modern | Victorian Era
Date
1800s
Topic
Intrigue | Mystery | Queen Victoria | Servants
Geographic Region
England | Europe
Main Character
Girl(s)
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook

Prisoners in the Palace: How Princess Victoria became Queen with the Help of Her Maid, a Reporter, and a Scoundrel

Author: MacColl, Michaela

London, 1838. Sixteen-year-old Liza’s dreams of her society debut are dashed when her parents are killed in an accident. Penniless, she accepts the position of lady’s maid to young Princess Victoria and steps unwittingly into the gossipy intrigue of the servants’ world below-stairs and the rampant trickery above. Is it possible that her changing circumstances may offer Liza the chance to determine her own fate, find true love, and secure the throne for her future queen? Meticulously based on newly discovered information, this engrossing novel is as rich in historical detail as Catherine, Called Birdy, and as sizzling with intrigue as The Luxe.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
1050L

Genre/Category
Fiction | Historical | Mystery

Historical Time Period
Colonial America | Early Modern
Date
1700s
Topic
Falsely Accused | Murder | Mystery | Servants
Geographic Region
Massachusetts | United States - America
Main Character
Girl(s)
Format
Book | Ebook

Secret of the Sealed Room: A Mystery of Young Benjamin Franklin

Author: MacDonald, Bailey

Indentured servant Patience Martin lives a hard life in 1721 Boston, but things get even harder when her demanding employer is found dead,in a bedroom locked from the inside. Powerful townsmen accuse Patience’s friend, Moll Bacon, of being a witch and the murderer, but with her own future in jeopardy, Patience doesn’t know how she can help prove Moll’s innocence until she finds a new friend. Ben Franklin is a clever young printer’s apprentice with a fondness for wise aphorisms. Ben risks his own skin to protect Patience, and his cunning and ingenuity are a perfect match for her courage and determination. But will their friendship and teamwork be enough to solve the mystery, clear Moll, and free Patience from a harsh life of servitude?

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
960L

Genre/Category
Adventure | Fiction | Historical

Historical Time Period
Reformation | Rennaisance
Date
1600s
Topic
Captives | Culture and Traditions | Japanese | Samurai | Servants
Geographic Region
Asia | Japan
Main Character
Boy(s)
Format
Book | Ebook

Samurai’s Tale

Author: Haugaard, Erik Christian

When the powerful Lord Takeda’s soldiers sweep across the countryside, killing and plundering, they spare the boy Taro’s life and take him along with them. Taro becomes a servant in the household of the noble Lord Akiyama, where he meets Togan, a cook, who teaches Taro and makes his new life bearable. But when Togan is murdered, Taro’s life takes a new direction: He will become a samurai, and redeem the family legacy that has been stolen from him.

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Borrow from Open Library

Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
1010L

Genre/Category
Fantasy | Fiction | Historical | Romance

Historical Time Period
Reformation | Rennaisance
Date
1500s
Topic
Dwarfs | imprisoned | Servants
Geographic Region
Europe | Spain
Main Character
Man/Men
Award-Winning Book
New York Times Notable Books | Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Books
Format
Audiobook | Book | Ebook | MP3

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars

Author: Marsh, Katherine

Fate:
Is it written in the stars from the moment we are born?
Or is it a bendable thing that we can shape with our own hands?

Jepp of Astraveld needs to know.

He left his countryside home on the empty promise of a stranger, only to become a captive in a luxurious prison: Coudenberg Palace, the royal court of the Spanish Infanta. Nobody warned Jepp that as a court dwarf, daily injustices would become his seemingly unshakable fate. If the humiliations were his alone, perhaps he could endure them; but it breaks Jepp’s heart to see his friend Lia suffer.

After Jepp and Lia attempt a daring escape from the palace, Jepp is imprisoned again, alone in a cage. Now, spirited across Europe in a kidnapper’s carriage, Jepp fears where his unfortunate stars may lead him. But he can’t even begin to imagine the brilliant and eccentric new master—a man devoted to uncovering the secrets of the stars—who awaits him. Or the girl who will help him mend his heart and unearth the long-buried secrets of his past.

Masterfully written, grippingly paced, and inspired by real histori­cal characters, Jepp, Who Defied the Stars is the tale of an extraordinary hero and his inspiring quest to become the master of his own destiny.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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Lexile/Reading Level
800L

Genre/Category
Fairy Tales | Fantasy | Fiction

Historical Time Period
Middle Ages
Date
1400s
Topic
Arranged Marriages | China | Culture and Traditions | Family Relationships | Foot Binding | Servants
Geographic Region
Asia | China
Main Character
Girl(s)
Format
Book | Ebook

Bound

Author: Napoli, Donna Jo

YOUNG XING XING IS BOUND.Bound to her father’s second wife and daughter after Xing Xing’s father has passed away. Bound to a life of servitude as a young girl in ancient China, where the life of a woman is valued less than that of livestock. Bound to be alone and unmarried, with no parents to arrange for a suitable husband. Dubbed “Lazy One” by her stepmother, Xing Xing spends her days taking care of her half sister, Wei Ping, who cannot walk because of her foot bindings, the painful but compulsory tradition for girls who are fit to be married. Even so, Xing Xing is content, for now, to practice her gift for poetry and calligraphy, to tend to the mysterious but beautiful carp in her garden, and to dream of a life unbound by the laws of family and society.
But all of this is about to change as the time for the village’s annual festival draws near, and Stepmother, who has spent nearly all of the family’s money, grows desperate to find a husband for Wei Ping. Xing Xing soon realizes that this greed and desperation may threaten not only her memories of the past, but also her dreams for the future.
In this searing story, Donna Jo Napoli, acclaimed author of “Beast and Breath, ” delves into the roots of the Cinderella myth and unearths a tale as powerful as it is familiar.

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Please note: Our posting a book in our Homeschool Librarian database does not mean that we endorse its contents. Please use your own discretion when selecting books for your child to read. Also, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Purchases made through our affiliate links help support this site. Book descriptions are sourced from either Amazon.com or GoodReads.
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What is my Child’s Lexile Measure?

GRADELEXILE
1st0-300L
2nd140-500L
3rd330-700L
4th445-810L
5th565-910L
6th665-1000L
7th735-1065L
8th805-1100L
9th855-1165L
10th905-1195L
11th/12th940-1210L
College+1210+

Find out more about Lexile Measures.

There are currently 5240 books in our database, and we're adding more every day!
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