Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story

Nine-year-old Gittel and her mother are immigrating from the Old Country to America, leaving behind friends and many cherished belongings ("Can't we take Frieda with us?" Gittel asks. "We cannot bring a goat to America," Mama says). But when they reach the boat, Mama is barred from boarding due to an eye infection, and she insists that Gittel continue without her. "Home is not safe for us," Mama tells her tearful daughter. "You are going to America to have a better life." Wearing a bright red kerchief, clutching the address of a cousin in New York City, and carrying Mama's precious Shabbat candlesticks in her bundle, Gittel starts her journey to Ellis Island. Mixed-media images by Bates (The Big Umbrella), washed in yellows and browns and framed by woodblock motifs, give readers a vivid sense of the historical context while infusing the story with a timeless emotional immediacy. Newman (Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed) skillfully modulates her narration, capturing her protagonist's feelings of excitement, loneliness, and fear. The ending, handled with both restraint and warmth, relies on one of those improbable twists of good fortune that define so many immigrant stories--and it's based on a real event. Ages 5-8. (Feb.)

Gr 2-5--"What if Mama's cousin Mendel doesn't like me?...What if English is too hard to learn? What if I never see Mama again?" Nine-year-old Gittel is alone on a ship to America after her mother's eye infection causes a health inspector to refuse the woman passage. Finding comfort in Basha, a favorite rag doll, Mama's candlesticks, and some children on board, Gittel finally steps foot on Ellis Island only to learn that the precious folded paper with cousin Mendel's address is watermarked and illegible. Not even knowing Mendel's last name, the girl feels that her situation is hopeless until a kindly Yiddish interpreter comes up with the perfect solution. Newman based the book on two true family stories. An author's note includes photos as well as a brief history of the approximate three million Eastern European Jews who fled the shtetls and pogroms in the early 1900s. A short glossary of Yiddish words and phrases and a bibliography are also appended. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated; blue endpapers feature prints of the ship approaching Lady Liberty, while the other pages are light brown with black printed borders or classical arches. The watercolor illustrations artfully capture an era and people, from their simple woolen clothes to their expressive faces. VERDICT Pair this with Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt for an historical look at early immigration.--Barbara Auerbach, Cairo Public Library, NY