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Synopsis
In this warm, poignant story, a little girl hears how, long ago, another little red-haired girl - her great-grandmother - sailed across the sea with her older brother to join their immigrant parents in a strange new land called America.
School Library Journal
Gr 1-4 Many years ago two small immigrants made the boat journey alone from the Old World to Hester Street. Theirs is the special story that the young narrator's great-grandmother used to tell. The story is a common, satisfying one of a brother and sister's reunion with their parents. Nothing extraordinary happens, but of course, the family's life is changed forever. There is no dialogue in the story, and only the details important to a child are included, so that it resembles an oral history. This sparseness of text has left the field to the illustrator, in whose full-color drawings are crowds, faces and drama quite beyond this one family's tale. Young readers can return to the book many times with satisfaction: there is a lot to see, to guess at and talk about. In this year when the Statue of Liberty is being restored, this book becomes an excellent introduction to the passage through Ellis Island. Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, Va.