Meyer, Carolyn. Diary of a Waitress: The Not-So-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl. HonesDale PA: Calkins Creek, 2015.

Kitty Evans' dreams of being a journalist are dashed when her father postpones her enrollment in college due to a decline in the family business. Rather than accept the position as a shoe salesperson that her father has arranged, KItty secretly applies to be a Harvey Girl. She worries about lying about her age, whether she is of good enough character (after all she’s lied about her age!), and what her parents would think. She gets the job, stands up to her parents, and heads to the west for her training as a Harvey Girl waitress and to gather experience for her future career as a journalist. She quickly meets up with Cordelia, a sassy musician and flapper, and Emmy, a quiet and reserved girl, and they have the adventures of a lifetime.

The requirements for being a Harvey Girl are pretty strict. The Harvey family built a series of restaurants in locations along the railroad line from Ohio to California. The purpose of these, to provide a fine dining experience in the 30 minutes that it took to refuel the trains at the station. The waitresses wore formal uniforms complete with corselet (a must!), and were expected to be able to work every job in the restaurant, and of course the customer was always right! Off hours the girls were housed together and under the strict control of their manager with curfew at 10 pm, no exceptions. The girls work hard, but they play hard too. They get to know the locals, become involved in the social activities there, and perhaps even date a little. Kitty keeps careful records of everything in which she is involved and soon finds herself a paid contributor to a local paper, eventually saving enough money to buy her own little portable typewriter.

Kitty is a strong girl, ambitious, and keeps her eyes on her goals, most of the time. She reminds me of Mattie from Donnelly’s A Northern Light. She is not quite as tough, perhaps, but provides an excellent role model for my readers. She makes enough mistakes to keep them engaged. She is a bit daring and eager to learn new things. History abounds; in fact, the text is a bit instructional here and there. Kids will learn some about the railroad, Charles Lindbergh, the music, the fashion, and more. Likely, readers will be entertained by the old fashioned courtships. I kind of like that they will get to see how things used to work in the world of romance.

I am excited to share this with my readers. Because our 11th grade history teacher requires a historical fiction novel each nine weeks, I am often in a position to recommend. Diary of a Waitress is one that will be high on my list this year. Period pictures are scattered throughout the text that add to the historical relevance of the text. Overall, I just enjoyed the read!