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Biblical Era | Middle Ages, Renaissance, & the Spanish Inquisition | Immigration & The American Experience (Page 1) (Page 2) (Page 3) (Page 4) (Page 5) | European History | Holocaust | Israel

Chanukah on the Prairie By Burt E. Schuman	Chanukah on the Prairie is the perfect introduction to a little-known slice of American Jewish history. As many Eastern European Jews immigrated to America, a small few traveled beyond New York City to the West. There, in the rolling plains, much like the homes they had left behind, Jews from all over Eastern Europe came together to make a new home. Based upon true events, this poignant story by Burt E. Schuman with beautiful illustrations by Rosalind Charney Kaye, follows the journey of the Zalcmans as they travel from their small village in Poland to Ellis Island and ultimately to Grand Forks. This story is a wonderful addition to any child's library. Join in the joy as the new immigrants celebrate their first Chanukah in a new land. Description from Publisher
Good Night, Maman By Norma Fox Mazer	Karin Levi's world of family, school, and friends is torn apart when the German army occupies Paris in June of 1940. Karin and her brother, Marc, like Jews all over Europe, find themselves on the run, seeking safety wherever they can find it. When Marc obtains two coveted places aboard a ship bound for the United States, Karin knows that crossing the ocean means she may never see her beloved parents again. Yet she and Marc have little choice if they are to survive. Karin's unforgettable story—revealing the little-known world of a handful of European refugees in World War II America—tells of survival, of growing up, and of love's ability to endure even the most extraordinary circumstances. Description from Publisher A touching novel that begins in 1940 and ends in 1945. Mazer follows 12-year-old Karin Levi and her experiences first as a hidden Jewish child in France, next as a traveling refugee, and, finally, as an inmate in the displaced persons camp in Oswego, NY. After Karin, her mother, and older brother leave France, they stay with a kind man in Italy. When it becomes clear that they must flee, the girl's mother is too ill to continue, and the two siblings must leave her behind. Throughout the book, the child deals with her feelings of loss by writing her mother letters. Mazer captures the refugee experience as Karin travels from place to place in constant fear with no sense of belonging, until she finally settles in at Oswego. Although the prose occasionally becomes strained and even saccharine, such as when the girl refers to her family as her "beloveds," for the most part, Karin's voice is realistic. Despite everything she has been through, she has her moments of petty jealousy and preteen difficulties. However, when her brother finally tells her that their mother did not survive, she manages to overcome her grief and look to the future when they will live with their father's aunt in California. Libraries looking to expand the scope of their Holocaust literature will find this book a welcome addition. Description from School Library Journal
A Time of Angels By Karen Hesse	Hannah and her sisters live in Boston with Tanta Rose and stern Vashti, awaiting their parents' return from a Europe embroiled in World War I. An influenza epidemic sweeps through the city, killing thousands including Tanta Rose. As Hannah is leaving town, she comes down with the flu and is helped by a mysterious girl with violet eyes. Hannah makes a slow recovery in Brattleboro, Vermont, cared for by an old farmer named Klaus, whose German heritage has made him suspect in the town. Hesse's meticulous re-creation of time and place (substantiated by an author's note) gets the novel off to a very slow start but lends an authentic feel to the story, despite some incidents that seem added merely for historical flavor. Her characters are also richly drawn, especially Klaus and Vashti, and there's a ring of truth to Hannah's being torn between her life in Vermont and her life in the city. Description from Booklist This magical book tells the story of Hannah Gold, a young Russian-American Jewish girl who lives in Boston with her two sisters, her great-aunt, and a family friend during World War I. Their mother was trapped in Russia by the Bolshevik Revolution and their father enlisted in the U.S. Army. As they struggle to make ends meet, Hannah longs for the time when her parents will come back and lies awake at night waiting. On some nights, she sees angels in the sky. When a lethal flu epidemic hits Boston, Tanta Rosa and Hannah's sisters fall ill. When Tanta Rosa dies, their family friend Vashti fears for Hannah's life and sends her away. Hannah is helped at the train station by a young girl with violet eyes. After getting sick on the train, Hannah is taken to a Red Cross hospital where an elderly German man named Klaus Gerhart takes her under his wing. Through her new "Uncle" Klaus, she discovers that there are humans on all sides of the war with family just like her father. When she is well enough to travel, the young girl with violet eyes returns to take her home and Hannah realizes the girl is actually an angel. This touching novel provides a realistic glimpse of the World War I era and explores the development of relationships between friends and family in ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Description from Children's Literature A warm, personal novel set in Boston during 1918. Hannah Gold, 14, and her two sisters live with their Tanta Rose while their parents are trapped in Russia because of the war. Although life is not easy, Tanta Rose provides for the girls as best she can. Rose's companion Vashti, however, feels that the girls are an intrusion. When the deadly influenza epidemic ravishes the city, Hannah's world is turned upside-down. Driven away by Vashti after Rose's death, the feverish young woman is guided to safety by a beautiful, ethereal girl (actually, an angel) who saved her life once before. She is nursed back to health on a Vermont farm by an old man whose strength and wisdom give her the courage to go back to Boston and to make peace with Vashti. Aspects of Jewish culture are nicely incorporated into the story, as are period details. However, some plot elements may cause confusion. The angel, portrayed as a guiding force instead of a fully developed character, interacts with Hannah on an almost subconscious level. Also, some of Hannah's actions do not seem realistic. Shortcomings aside, Hesse offers readers much to enjoy, analyze, and consider in this piece of historical fiction with a mystical bent. Description from School Library Journal
Speed of Light	In Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956, there's a bus boycott, but in 11-year-old Audrey's small mill town in the mountains of Virginia, segregation is never challenged. Then Mr. Caldwell tries to become the town's first black policeman, Audrey's father supports the integration, and Audrey and her family are verbally and physically attacked as Jews "trying to help that nigger." Many Jews in the community wish Audrey's dad would stop making trouble, but she supports her dad, even after the racists attack her home and hurt her mother. Central to the story is the brooding presence in Audrey's home of her distant cousin Tante, an Auschwitz survivor. Through Tante's personal testimony, Audrey learns about the Holocaust, and she makes the connections to slavery and its bitter aftermath in segregation. The dramatic confrontations and the issues will move readers. In a quiet climactic scene, Audrey and her black friend spontaneously integrate the town bus when Audrey offers him her seat. Description from Booklist Winner of Sydney Taylor Book Award (Association of Jewish Libraries)
Letters from Rifka By Karen Hesse	Twelve-year-old Rifka's journey from a Jewish community in the Ukraine to Ellis Island is anything but smooth sailing. Modeled on the author's great-aunt, Rifka surmounts one obstacle after another in this riveting novel. First she outwits a band of Russian soldiers, enabling her family to escape to Poland. There the family is struck with typhus. Everyone recovers, but Rifka catches ringworm on the next stage of the journey -- and is denied passage to America ("If the child arrives . . . with this disease," explains the steamship's doctor, "the Americans will turn her around and send her right back to Poland"). Rifka's family must leave without her, and she is billeted in Belgium for an agreeable if lengthy recovery. Further trials, including a deadly storm at sea and a quarantine, do not faze this resourceful girl. Told in the form of "letters" written by Rifka in the margins of a volume of Pushkin's verse and addressed to a Russian relative, Hesse's vivacious tale colorfully and convincingly refreshes the immigrant experience. Description from Publisher Weekly
Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme By Joan W. Blos	A Newbery Medal-winning author returns to early Americana. Eleven-year-old Rosey is worried about her school writing assignment. How can she write interestingly about her ordinary life in Brooklyn. As Rosey writes her stories, a vivid and heart-touching picture emerges of life in a Jewish-American community in the early years of the 20th century. Description from Publisher Rosey Sachs, 11, narrates these loosely connected stories about a Polish Jewish immigrant family in New York City in the early 1900s. Her voice is gently upbeat, with an authentic Yiddish idiom ("He bought for us a house"), evoking the warmth of the extended family that celebrates the old ways even as it eagerly tries to become part of America. Like Blos' Newbery winner, A Gathering of Days, the focus is on the small events of daily life. The account of the family's move to a new house is a marvel of affectionate comedy. The story "Momma and the Vote" personalizes history with wit and verve. There's a touching episode about two brothers who can only go to school alternate weeks because they share a pair of shoes. Unfortunately, much of the material reads like bits and pieces of anecdote and local color, with characters that come and go too quickly to hold our interest. As Rosey comes to realize, there's a difference between something that happens and making it a story. This is family folklore, and in fact, that's the way the book will be best used: in writing classes to encourage kids to find their own family stories, whether the immigration was many generations back or is happening right now. Description from Booklist "Knowing about your family will help you to know yourself." That's what Miss Edgecomb, Rosey Sachs's sixth grade teacher, says when she asks her students to write stories about their families. But, Rosey wonders, what can possibly be interesting about her immigrant parents, her small Brooklyn house, and the everyday lives of her friends and relatives in New York in the early twentieth century? Then Rosey starts remembering things she hasn't thought about since they happened, and she realizes she does have stories to tell: about Momma and Papa, about her big brother Arnold and her baby sister Sadie, about her uncles and aunt and cousins, and about Itzy Carnitzky, Arnold's best friend, who might just turn out to be Rosey's friend as well. And Rosey discovers that Miss Edgecomb was right. Description from Back Cover
Land of Hope By Joan Lowery Nixon	In the first book of the Ellis Island series, 15-year-old Rebekah Levinsky escapes persecution against Jews in Russia and flees with her family to join Uncle Avir in New York City. Few of the family's belongings can be brought on the treacherous voyage, and Rebekah misses her best friend and the home she leaves behind. Even so, she adapts quickly to life on board the ship and finds friends. Her arduous journey is vividly described; her friendships and fleeting shipboard romance are less convincing. When Rebekah's grandfather is denied entry into the U.S. because he is lame, the family is devastated. They are also unprepared for the cramped living quarters of their new home and the long hours they must work in the sweat shop to survive in the new land. Despite the difficulties, Rebekah is still granted her one wish--to go to school. Nixon's careful rendering of life for immigrants in the early 1900s is realistically harsh yet hopeful, and teenagers will absorb a strong sense of the times as they read Rebekah's engrossing story. Description from Booklist When Rebekah Levinsky and her family embark on the long voyage to America at the turn of the century, she befriends two other young immigrants. At Ellis Island, the three friends part ways, with the Levinskys staying in New York. The city is a shock as they adjust to the many changes and new hardships. An honest portrayal of a slice of American history, from the perspective of a young Russian-Jewish immigrant. Description from Horn Book
Two Cents and a Milk Bottle By Lee Chai'ah Batterman	Twelve-year-old Leely Dorman has a big problem. She knows the right thing to do, but getting it done seems impossible. How can Leely, the child of Russian immigrants living in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, find the money to pay back a debt to her friend-especially when the Dorman family can barely afford to put food on the table for themselves? In this charming first novel, author Lee Chai'ah Batterman introduces readers to Leely, her brainy fifteen-year-old sister Evy, and Arnie, her tag-along brother, as they face a new neighborhood, a new school and new friends. Over the course of the novel, Leely becomes a faithful friend, an entrepreneur and the first girl in the neighborhood to study to become a Bat Mitzvah. The contrast of Leely's Jewish background and her best friend Francy's Italian heritage adds an especially colorful twist to their sweet friendship. But it is Leely's moral dilemma-and her poignant and often humorous efforts to resolve it-that draws readers into this beautifully written tale of adolescent tribulations and family cohesiveness. There is a life lesson to be learned in every chapter of Two Cents and a Milk Bottle, from developing humane values and intercultural friendships to confronting sickness and death. And Leely proves herself a wonderfully capable teacher for young adults and their parents alike. Description from Publisher
Fitting in By Sharon Kirsh	Molly, a young Jewish girl growing up in the early sixties, learns about life through trial and error, confronts anti-Semitism at school and at home. Description from Publisher
Independence Avenue By Eileen Bluestone Sherman	This Jewish immigration story set in 1907 has a resourceful and engaging hero, an unusual setting, and enough plot and action to sustain reader interest. Elias Cherevnosky, 14, accompanies his aging, sickly Hebrew teacher from Russia to Galveston, Texas in exchange for free passage. When they dock, the man is found to have traucoma, grounds for automatic deportation, and Elias decides to remain in the United States. Through a series of coincidences, and some quick thinking and fast talking, he finds himself in Kansas City, working in a department store as a janitor. This is a well-textured story with a variety of subplots and relevant themes. Elias develops a shy romantic interest in his boss's daughter, which provokes resentment on the part of the girl's aunt, who doesn't like the idea of an immigrant getting too close to her family. The fear of pogroms in Russia that threaten his remaining family is a real one. Most readers will identify with the adolescent anxieties described. The main characters are sensitive, likable, real people. This story can be highly recommended both to general readers and to those with that perennial historical-novel assignment. Description from School Library Journal

Biblical Era | Middle Ages, Renaissance, & the Spanish Inquisition | Immigration & The American Experience (Page 1) (Page 2) (Page 3) (Page 4) (Page 5) | European History | Holocaust | Israel

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