Faraway Summer [Hardcover]

Johanna Hurwitz (Author), Mary Azarian (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

During the summer of 1910 a young Jewish gir l is sent for a summer holiday to stay with a Christian fami ly in Vermont. Weaving historical detail into this fictional account the author has created an engaging children''s novel . '

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 120-year-old Fresh Air Fund, which gives free rural vacations to inner-city children, here provides readers the chance to explore not one but two period settings. In the summer of 1910, 12-year-old Hadassah (Dossi) Rabinowitz, born in Russia and now orphaned, leaves the small room she and her sister share on New York City's Lower East Side to spend two weeks with a Vermont farm family. She brings the blank book she has won for "best achievement" in her seventh-grade class, and her entries comprise the narrative. Hurwitz (author of the Class Clown books) does not attempt to ape a 12-year-old's writingAthe chapters are replete with dialogue and traditional exposition. The Meades have never met a Jewish person before but are open-minded. One daughter likes Dossi immediately; the other, standoffish at first, eventually becomes a good friend. The story line is somewhat artificially pumped up around a brand-new library book that gets ruined; although there is also a fire (in which Dossi plays a heroine's part), the chief interest lies in the conscientious presentation of two different cultures. Dossi reports excitedly on Mrs. Meade's canning and the girls' farm chores; she in turn tells the Meade sisters about the pickle barrels on Delancey Street and her sister's long days at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Hurwitz's research is convincing and her protagonist sympathetic enough to forgive the author's few contrivances; readers will likely be drawn to this little-known slice of history. Ages 7-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6AIn 1910, a 12-year-old Jewish girl from New York's Lower East Side spends two weeks with a Vermont family through the Fresh Air Fund. Dossi, short for Hadassah, lives in a tenement room with her older sister and knows only the sights and smells of her crowded community. She takes two library books with her on the long train journey to help dispel her fears, but finds that her sponsors are warm and sharing people. Each experience on the Meades' farm is new for Dossi: the size of cows, the wonder of fireflies in the night, and the quantity of food on the table. There are mild cultural differences. The Vermonters have never seen a Jew and Dossi, although non-observant, will not eat pork or mix meat and milk products. Still, she becomes friends with the two girls in the family and helps to save a neighbor's livestock when a barn catches fire. Told through Dossi's journal entries, this pleasant story is sometimes marred by stilted conversation. However, it has a happy ending and the added interest of an actual historical person, Wilson Alwyn Bentley, who first photographed snowflakes.ASusan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 155 pages
• Publisher: Morrow Junior Books (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688153348
• ISBN-13: 978-0688153342
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,267,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book about friendship and families, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Faraway Summer (Hardcover)

This is a good story about a girl who spends a few weeks with a family that is very different from her own. Dossi learns other people have alot to offer her and she has alot to offer in a friendship,too. Hurwitz is a wonderful author; she makes the characters and situation come alive.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, February 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Faraway Summer (Hardcover)

This was a great book. It is about Dossi, a poor Jewish orphan from New York City who is able to spend two weeks in August of 1910 in the Vermont countryside through the Fresh Air Fund. Dossi learns about country life from her hosts' two daughters, and Dossi in turn teaches them about city life. I highly reccomend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fast paced novel, good for a rainy afternoon, May 1, 2001

By 

Maryam (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faraway Summer (Paperback)

Haddassah (Dossi for short) is a Jewish girl lives in a cramped apartment in New York City. Her sister (Ruthi) signs her up for a Fresh Air Fund which sends poor children too the country for 2 weeks in the summer. Dossi leaves excited and yet afraid to go on vacation with a family she doesn't know in Vermont for 2 weeks. She is stunned by things in the country and doesn't even know what fireflies are. This is one fault that I found with the book, she seems to know NOTHING of the country, now I can believe she's never milked a cow, but some of the things she had never seen are unbelievable. Anyway during the book she sprouts friendship and learns new things of her trip. She meets new people and learns what the lovely countryside is like. This is a really fast paced book, you should be able to finish it within an hour or so, but nonetheless it is worth reading.