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This book was first published in 1983. It was shortlisted for the Observer Teenage Fiction Prize in 1983 and has been translated into German and Danish.
Set in 1904, this is the story of a group of Jews on board an emigration ship bound for America. They are fleeing from poverty, persecution and death. Fourteen year old Mina has seen a neighbour's house set on fire - a fire in which a baby perished. Far worse is what happened to old Mr Kaminsky. He hid in his wife's linen basket. When he crawled out he saw people in the streets, dead and wounded, and all around him were burning buildings.
Yet despite everything, as the old saying goes, life must go on. This voyage lasts only two weeks and yet into that short space of time there is a wide range of human experiences. There is a birth, a death, an eighteenth birthday party, a romance, an engagement.
These people are also fleeing from poverty. Many of them have sold almost all their possessions to pay for their tickets. But most of them still have something left - their dreams of what America might hold for them. Mina, who likes to draw, thinks that in America there will be paper thick and white, and every kind of pencil. She will go to school and learn English and people will be more polite and not set houses on fire and her mother will be able to have a piano again. Daniel dreams of becoming a farmer in California; of mountains and sunshine all the time and oranges on trees. Yasha, on the other hand, dreams of owning his own jewellery shop. He has visions of carriages, of lighted shop windows and tall buildings.
As Shakespeare said, "This is the stuff that dreams are made of."
Lesser incidents also play their part as when mean, sulky, bored Yankel steals and destroys the precious toy horse of Eli, Mina's young brother.
This book does not give as much detail about the conditions aboard the ship as many other emigration stories. True, we are told of the difficulty of getting milk for the baby when the mother's own milk dries up and the crowded, cramped conditions are vividly described in such phrases as "people lying on bunks all pushed up next to one another like loaves on a bakery shelf."
But this is primarily a novel about personal relationships and developments. It is more about the emotional side of emigration rather than the external physical conditions.
A worthy addition to emigration fiction for the thoughtful reader.
Teenage
This book was first published in 1997. It won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1998.
This is a large format picture book. The story is set around the turn of the nineteenth century.
Jessie lives with her grandmother in a poor village far from here. One evening the Rabbi calls the people of the village to the synagogue. His brother in America has just died. Before he died he sent the Rabbi a ticket to America. The Rabbi cannot go so he chooses one of the villagers to go in his place. He chooses Jessie. She can live with his brother's widow who has a dress shop.
So Jessie leaves her grandmother and the little village. We are shown the voyage on the emigrant ship and the questioning on Ellis Island. Then we see Jessie settling down in America -- sewing for Cousin Kay, learning English, meeting and becoming engaged to Lou, and finally saving up enough money to be able to send for her grandmother.
This is a lovely book. It is beautifully illustrated. The pictures really bring the story of the emigrant ships alive. This book shows that picture books are not just for children.
8 to adult
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