Hannah's Journal: The Story of an Immigrant Girl (A Young American Voices Book) - Softcover

Marissa Moss

4

192 ratings by Goodreads

9780439312332: Hannah's Journal: The Story of an Immigrant Girl (A Young American Voices Book)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0439312337 ISBN 13: 9780439312332

Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Hannah's small European village buzzes with tales of life free from persecution in a place called America. Timid cousin Esther has passage for two aboard a ship bound for New York, and Hannah convinces Mama and Papashka to let her use the extra ticket. The voyage is long, but Hannah and Esther find a new friend in Samuel, a young orphan aboard the ship, and together they endure the stormy seas and cramped steerage quarters. Finally, the soaring Statue of Liberty greets them at Ellis Island, but will America really be everything they've dreamed of?

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

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

About the Author:

MARISSA MOSS is best known for her handwritten illustrated journals, including the enormously popular Amelia series. She lives in Berkeley, California.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.