Amazon.com Review
As life in 1901 Lithuania grows more dangerous for Jewish people, Hannah's family seizes an opportunity to send Hannah to America with her cousin Esther. At age 10, insatiably curious Hannah is more courageous than 14-year-old Esther and must push her through each door that brings them closer to their new life. Along the way the girls encounter a young orphan boy, and together, the three withstand the grueling journey across the ocean in the steerage compartment of the ship. But even after they've laid eyes on the Statue of Liberty, they're still not home free. They spend almost a month on Ellis Island, waiting for their American sponsor to find them, dreading the possibility of being deported before they ever set foot on the mainland. Hannah records her experiences and childlike drawings in a journal her "Papashka" (father) gave her before she departed.
Like Marissa Moss's popular Amelia series, this handwritten, fictionalized journal of America's peak immigration years in the early 1900s is tremendously appealing to adventurers and anyone who can trace family ties to another country. Moss is the author of several other titles in the Young American Voices series (Emma's Journal: The Story of a Colonial Girl and Rachel's Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl). Her skill in weaving personal tales with real historical information makes reading the journals an education and a delight. (Ages 8 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5-Hannah, 10, is a Russian Jew who leaves home for America with her 14-year-old cousin Esther in 1901. From the start, the journey is fraught with complications. Since Esther was originally supposed to travel with 16-year-old Rivka, who died of influenza, the two girls must assume different identities to match the already obtained passports. After a perilous trip filled with intolerable sanitary conditions, storms, and other discomforts, Esther, Hannah, and their new friend Samuel arrive on Ellis Island only to spend an agonizing month waiting for officials to locate their sponsor. Finally, he is found and they begin their new life in New York. The journal entries have a hand-lettered appearance and are sprinkled with colorful drawings and asides. Children may be confused by the fact that Hannah makes it clear from the start that her ability to read and write both Hebrew and Russian is limited, and she doesn't yet speak or write English. The voice seems to ring true, but whose is it? Despite the fact that the lack of formal schooling that young girls like Hannah had available to them presents a quandary for this type of journal format, Moss does give her readers a real sense of the time in which the protagonist lived.
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
