Author: Amy Hest
Illustrator: P. J. Lynch
Genre: Historical Fiction
Awards: Kate Greenaway Medal (1997), Sydney Taylor Book Award (1997), Christopher Award (Books for Young People, 1998), Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee (1999-2000), VDL Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Nominee, Sequoyah Book Award Nominee (2000), Utah Beehive Book Award Nominee (2000)
Grade(s): 1st-2nd
Summary: This book is about an orphaned 13-year-old girl named Jessie who lived with her grandmother. Her grandmother sewed lace while Jessie learned to read and write. They both taught each other their skills in case they needed them in the future. When the town's rabbi learns that his brother had passed away, he had a ticket to America that he couldn't use because he couldn't stand to leave his town and people. Therefore, the rabbi decided that he was going to choose someone to go to America in his place to help his widowed sister-in-law, Kay, in her dress shop in New York City. The rabbi ended up choosing Jessie to go. Jessie reluctantly left her grandmother and headed for America. On the ship, Jessie met a boy named Lou. However, when she arrived Kay met her and began to show her around the city and she had never gotten the chance to say goodbye to her friend Lou. Jessie continued to work for Kay in her dress shop where she sewed lace and eventually started sewing wedding dresses that became very popular. Meanwhile, Jessie ended up running into Lou in a park and the two of them fell in love. Lou asked Jessie to marry him, but she said, "soon." When Jessie saved up enough money from the dress shop, she went and bought her grandmother a ticket to America. When her grandmother arrived, she had given Jessie her mother's wedding band, which she was keeping safe. When Jessie received her mother's wedding band, she knew there was going to get married... to Lou.
My Thoughts: I absolutely loved this book!! Not only was the story amazing, but the illustrations were outstanding!! I will definitely be able to use this book to teach my students about immigration and Ellis Island, which is where Jessie's ship docked in America. I think this will be an excellent addition to my library. It is a lovely story of the realities of immigration and the way it was back then for people to come to America, the "promised land." It also shows the value of hard work and having to work to make your way in life, which I feel is a lesson that is becoming less and less taught these days. I can't wait to add this story to my library!!
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