The Gilded Girl by Alyssa Colman (review)

In 1906 Manhattan, wealthy Emma enters exclusive Miss Posterity’s Academy for Practical Magic, but when her father dies in a San Francisco earthquake and leaves a pile of unpaid debts, Miss Posterity puts her to work alongside housemaid Izzy. Despite their circumstances, both girls are determined to kindle their magic—a privilege hoarded by the wealthy, they realize, specifically to keep the lower classes downtrodden. With help from kind newsie Tom, shy dyslexic student Franny, and a talking cat—er, cat-shaped house dragon—named Figgy Pudding, the girls bridge their differences to work toward a common goal. Readers familiar with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess will recognize the riches-to-rags plot, and the earnest personal growth for both Emma and Izzy and triumphant ending make for a cozy read. A strong thread of historically plausible class consciousness curtails any saccharine tendencies: Tom’s fellow newsies are abuzz with magical rights rallies, Izzy is determined to reunite with her younger sister, who was put on an orphan train to Oklahoma, and Emma realizes that even her idolized papa has drunk the class privilege Kool-Aid. Tom and Izzy’s working-class immigrant families (Italian and Irish, respectively) could spark conversations about the evolution of white privilege in a historical/magical world that, to modern eyes, might read as racially homogenous. Under the sugary packaging there’s a lot of substance, and readers will take to heart the strong emphasis on personal worth regardless of circumstance.