The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming

When eleven-year-old Jane's father died in the Civil War, his widow was forced into millwork and Jane became nanny to her half-brother, Jer. But now they've found Mr. Mercer, a prospector of sorts bringing a boatload of widows, orphans, and young marriageable ladies from the East Coast to Washington Territory. Jane is convinced this opportunity will be just the thing to broaden her mind and allow her to live up to the promise she made her father, to get a leaving certificate from school. (Her stepmother has other ideas and wants Jane to learn to keep house.) In conversational prose, Jane chronicles the four-month boat trip and her first months in Seattle, which is not the exciting boom town full of bankers and investors that Mr. Mercer implied it would be. Feeling precariously positioned as an orphan living at the whims of her stepmother's good graces, Jane cautiously but bravely makes her way in her new town, finding her own mentors and allies. Jane's complex emotions and believable relationships with people of all ages and from different backgrounds give dimension to her character. sarah hannah gomez