Sarah, Also Known As Hannah (Hardcover)

by Lillian Hammer Ross (Author), Helen Cogancherry (Illustrator) "We sat shiva..." (more)
Key Phrases: beautiful ship, Mima Civia, Frau Rivkin, Uncle Benjamin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
An undercurrent of pain and grief runs throughout this account of the author's mother's journey from the Ukraine to Ellis Island in 1910. The novel opens with a father's death in the tiny town of Lisec; his widow struggles to care for their four children. An uncle in America offers to sponsor the oldest child, 16-year-old Hannah, and mails tickets for her passage. Hannah, thrilled, prepares for her voyage, but at the last minute her mother decides it would be more prudent to use Hannah's passport to send Sarah, 12, instead. Both girls are devastated--Hannah because she has lost her "golden opportunity," Sarah because she feels rejected by her mother. Sarah's sense of loss and her worries about her use of Hannah's passport complicate the already fraught journey to America. In showing the darker, more mournful aspects of a classic immigration story, Ross enriches the reader's understanding of those huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But she also infects the reader with Sarah's anxiety: a note at the beginning quotes a tearful Sarah at the age of 91 ("A very sad story. My mother sent me away"), and the absence of an epilogue creates the impression of lasting, unbearable sorrow. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5-When Mr. Kamornick dies in the Ukraine in 1910, his widow writes to her brother in America, asking him to take in her daughters since she cannot provide dowries for them. He replies that he can afford third-class passage for just the older daughter, Hannah. She gets her passport, but a few weeks before her departure, her mother decides that it would be better for Sarah, 12, to go instead. What follows is a straightforward account of Sarah's journey to nearby Stanislav and then by train to Hamburg, her crossing of the Atlantic, and her meeting with her aunt and uncle at Ellis Island. A pleasant, quietly told tale based on the experiences of the author's mother, this has neither the excitement nor the vivid descriptions of Evelyn Mayerson's The Cat Who Escaped from Steerage (Scribners, 1990).
Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 63 pages
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807572373
• ISBN-13: 978-0807572375
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,447,147 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)