Part of Alice Turner Curtis' Little Maid series, a collection of twenty-four books, each featuring the story of a young girl during the time of the American Revolution, A Little Maid of Old New York relates the adventures of Annette Vincent, a ten-year-old girl living in occupied New York in 1783, shortly before the withdrawal of British troops from the city. Although her family are all ardent Patriots, Annette's best friend, Kathy Down, is the daughter of prominent Tories, and the majority of the book centers on Annette's efforts to remain true to her friend, while also demonstrating to her skeptical older cousin, John Van Arsdale, that she is loyal to the American cause.

This is only the second Little Maid book I have read (the first being A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay), but I already detect certain themes that most likely recur in the other titles. For a story set during a time of such violent political and social upheaval, A Little Maid of Old New York is rather sedate. Originally published in 1921, I imagine that it must conform, in this respect, to established trends in girls' literature of the era. The conflicts seem too easily resolved, with little of the ugliness that one would expect between Patriots and Tories, and the characters often seem a little one-dimensional in their virtue.

Located in a far more urban setting than A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay, this title also features a setting of greater affluence. Unfortunately, this means that there are more African-American servants and slaves, all of whom speak in the stereotypical "dialect" assigned to "negroes" in books of this type. At one point one of these characters refers to another slave as a "n*gger." There are also numerous patronizing throw-away remarks concerning Native Americans, who apparently still "lurk" around Staten Island, in a vaguely threatening manner.

Ugliness such as this is often encountered in children's books published before a certain date, but its frequency in this specific title was off-putting. Somehow its juxtaposition with the sentimental innocence of the story makes it all the more disturbing. ( )