{"product_id":"the-unexpected-lives-of-ordinary-girls","title":"The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe New York Historical Children's Book Prize Winner 2026\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSigned by Author - while supplies last\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStanislava 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSylvia 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…\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"a-unordered-list a-nostyle a-vertical a-spacing-none detail-bullet-list\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e272 pages\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eGrade level ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e5 - 6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eReading age ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e10 years and up\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e5.5 x 1.1 x 8.25 inches\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eby J. Anderson Coats\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"SIMON","offers":[{"title":"HC","offer_id":46604496011463,"sku":"25764","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0761\/3295\/files\/25764.jpg?v=1780025277","url":"https:\/\/shop.nyhistory.org\/products\/the-unexpected-lives-of-ordinary-girls","provider":"The New York Historical NYHistory Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}