Historical Fiction: Immigration, Migration & Beyond January 2016 ELL Book List Immigration is our preferred Historical Fiction subject this month in in conjunction with our study of Immigration & Migration 1864-1918. Other books are, however, acceptable if you get prior approval from your teacher.

Antin, Mary Promised Land This is an autobiography written in 1912 by an eastern European woman who emigrated to the United States in the 1890s. A native of Polotzk in the Russian “Pale of Settlement,” she came to this country at the age of 13 and settled in with her parents and 3 siblings. Like many Jews who fled oppression for a life of freedom, Antin felt that she had experienced a “second birth” on coming to America.

Auch, Mary Jane Ashes of Roses This is the fictional account of Rose Noland, a young Irish immigrant who comes to this country in 1911 and takes a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Caught in the terrible fire there, the book is based on first person survivor accounts of the inferno.

Avi Beyond the Western Sea Book 1 – Escape From Home Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year- old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord’s runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America. Book 2 – Lord Kirkle’s Money The intrigue and suspense of mistaken identities make up much of the journey and are mixed with themes of corruption and survival in the new world.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Coal Miner’s Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer PA, 1896 (Dear America series) The diary account of 13-year-old Anetka’s life in Poland in 1896, immigration to America, marriage to a coal miner, widowhood, and happiness in finally finding her true love.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell The Journal of Finn Reardon, A Newsie: , 1899. (My Name Is America series) Finn Reardon is a clever boy who combines school with selling newspapers. Living in a 3 room tenement apartment in the Bowery, with his family, he has to cope with 7 people living in poor conditions. He wants to leave school and make his way in the world to help support his family but his mother sees school as the avenue for success. This is a time when labor is staking a stand to protect itself and both Finn and his mother face off against the Hearst newspaper chain.

Bauer, Marion Dane Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, An English Girl in , 1873. (Dear America series)

!1 Banson, Karen Streets of Gold Fourteen-year-old Maureen and her family, refugees from the Irish potato famine of the 1840’s arrive in New York and struggle to make a place for themselves in an environment more hostile than they had imagined.

Blakeslee, Ann. A Different Kind of Hero In 1881 twelve-year-old Renny resists his father's efforts to turn him into a rough, tough, brawling boy. He befriends a newly arrived Chinese boy and earns the disapproval of the entire Irish immigrant mining camp.

Denenberg, Barry One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938. (Dear America series)

Denenberg, Barry So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, MA 1847. (Dear America series) Fourteen-year-old Mary Driscoll escapes the Irish potato famine and finds work in as a worker in a fabric mill.

Duey, Kathleen Nell Dunne: Ellis Island, 1904 Nell's story begins aboard the Astoria, as she and her Irish family are en route to join her father who left years before to find a better life in America. Nell experiences the sights, sounds and smells of the immigrant ships.

Durbin, William The Journal of Otto Peltonen (My Name Is America series) Offering a perspective on what people have endured in our land of opportunity, Otto Peltonen’s journal documents his daily descent down a Minnesota mine. He essentially gives his life to the Iron Mining Company in pursuit of his family’s dream for their own farm.

Fletcher, Susan Walk Across the Sea This is a tale is set in 1886 California and involves the prejudice against the Chinese and a 13-year-old girl’s friendship with a “heathen” China Boy – a relationship that develops after he saves her goat from a “sneaker wave” that threatens to wash both Eliza and the animal out to sea.

Geras, Adele Voyage This story relates the experiences of a group of Jewish young people in the early twentieth century as they journey from their homes in Eastern Europe to the United States in search of a new life.

Glaser, Linda Bridge to America: Based on a True Story Young Fivel, left behind in his Polish shtetl while his father in America earns passage for the rest of the family, endures extreme hunger and the terrifying threat of Russian pogroms before the money finally arrives. Upon stepping off at Ellis Island, however, Fivel's joy commingles with an uncomfortable sense of having "left . . . easy belonging behind."

Giff, Patricia Reilly Nory Ryan’s Song When a terrible blight attacks Ireland’s potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan’s courage and ingenuity helps her family and neighbors survive.

!2 Giff, Patricia Reilly Water Street in 1875 Brooklyn, thirteen-year-old Bird aspires to be just like her healer/midwife mother, the now-grown protagonist of Nory Ryan’s Song

Giff, Patricia Reilly Maggie’s Door This book continues the theme of the Irish potato famine begun in the previous listing. Here Nory Ryan and her boyfriend, Sean Red Mallon travel separately on the dangerous road of Ireland towards the port and the cavernous ship that will take them to Maggie’s door.

Giff, Patricia Reilly House of Tailors When thirteen-year-old Dina emigrates from Germany to America in 1871, her only wish is to return home as soon as she can, but she must survive a multitude of hardships.

Gundisch, Karin How I Became An American In 1902, 10-year-old Johann and his family, Germans who had been living in Austria-Hungary, board a ship to immigrate to Youngstown, Ohio, where they make a new life as Americans.

Guy, Rosa The Friends One of a series of novels depicting relations between West Indian immigrants in Harlem.

Hesse, Karen Letters from Rifka In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.

Hest, Amy When Jessie Came Across the Sea A 13-year-old Jewish orphan reluctantly leaves her grandmother and immigrates to New York City, where she words for three years sewing lace and earning money to bring Grandmother to the United States, too.

Krensky, Stephen. The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps In 1867, while staying with her father in a small California mining town, ten-year-old Winnie meets a Chinese boy close to her age and discovers the role of his people in completing the transcontinental railroad.

Lasky, Kathryn Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, 1903. (Dear America series) New dreams and old traditions flourish and clash when a Jewish girl and her family emigrate from Russia to America.

Lasky, Kathryn Night Journey A young girl learns of her family’s heritage from her bed- ridden great grandmother. In this book, it’s a samovar that is handed down through the family that occasions the stories.

Lehrman, Robert The Store That Mama Built in 1917 12-year-old Birdie and her siblings, the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia, help their recently widowed mother run the family store, picking up where their father left off in his struggle to succeed in America.

!3 Levitin, Sonia Journey To America A Jewish family felling Nazi German in 1938 endures innumerable separations before they are once more reunited.

Silver Days In this sequel to Journey To America, the reunited Platt family works hard at settling in to America, but the spectre of the war in Europe continues to affect their lives.

McKissack, Patricia Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love (Dear America series) Eleven-year-old Nellie Lee Love records in her diary the events of 1919, when her family moves from Tennessee to , hoping to leave the and hatred of the South behind as they join the Great Migration.

Na, An A Step From Heaven Young Ju’s parents don’t want her to become too American, and Young Ju is ashamed of them. In this stirring immigration story, the particulars of one Korean American family speak to the universal conflicts between home and outside.

Napoli, Donna Jo The King of Mulberry Street Only nine when his mother smuggled him out of Italy, Dom Napoli quickly comes of age on the dangerous streets of 1890s New York City. This will be the Book Club selection in February 2010- you may not get credit twice.

Nixon, Joan Lowery The Ellis Island Trilogy In this trilogy, readers meet Rebekah, Kristin, and Rose. Each girl left her homeland in 1902 to come to America. Traveling from Europe on the same ship, the girls become fast friends during the difficult three-week journey. Land of Hope Rebekah Levinsky and her Jewish family flee Russia to seek a better life in America. They settle in New York City, but instead of finding streets paved with gold, they slave seven days a week in a sweatshop. Rebekah finds the resolve to conquer the odds against her and begins to study to become a teacher. Land of Promise When 15-year-old Rose Carney arrives in Chicago from her family farm in Ireland, she finds that life in America isn’t so easy. She’s been working to help pay for her mother’s and sister’s passage; she’s been trying to deal with her father’s drinking problem; and then Rose becomes involved in Jane Addams’ campaign to clean up Chicago. Land of Dreams As Kristen Swenson anxiously awaits her first glimpse of America, she is filled with a sense of the freedom that her new life promises. But she soon finds herself living on a farm in Minnesota where her parents and neighbors cling as closely as possible to the life they had known in Sweden.

Nye, Naomi Shihab Habibi When 14-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many challenges and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.

!4 Oswald, Nancy. Nothing Here But Stones In 1882, ten-year-old Emma and her family, along with other Russian Jewish immigrants, arrive in Cotopaxi, Colorado, where they face inhospitable conditions as they attempt to start an agricultural colony, and lonely Emma is comforted by the horse whose life she saved.

Paterson, Katherine Bread and Roses, Too Two children, on an Italian immigrant attending school, one a native-born New Englander laboring in the textile mills, are caught up in the Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Ross, Lillian Hammer Sarah, Also Known As Hannah When 12-year-old Sarah leaves the Ukraine for American in her sister’s place, she must use her sister’s passport and her sister’s name, Hannah.

Sachs, Marilyn Call Me Ruth The daughter of a Russian immigrant family, newly arrived in Manhattan in 1908, has conflicting feelings about her mother’s increasingly radical union involvement.

Sherman, Eileen Bluestone Independence Avenue Elias, a 14-year-old Russian immigrant, arrives alone in Kansas City in 1907, finding new employment and friends but also receiving bad news about his family back in Russia.

Shiefman, Vicky Goodbye to the Trees Despite the excitement and confusion of her new life in America, 13-year-old Fagel can’t forget the family she left behind in Russia.

Veciana–Suarez, Ana Flight To Freedom This book is a daily journal belonging to a young lady named Yara Garcia. The journal takes you Yara’s easy, rough, happy and sad times as the family goes through the process of exile from Cuba. She details her home life in Cuba, her days in a communist training camp and finally her flight to America.

Yep, Laurence Dragon’s Gate When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father and others building a tunnel through the Sierra Nevada mountains for the transcontinental railroad in 1867.

Yep, Laurence Dragonwings A young Chinese boy sails from China to Sand Francisco in 1903 to joint the inventor (and laundryman) father he has never met.

Yep, Laurence Journal of Wong Ming-Chung (My Name Is America series) A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.

!5 Historical Fiction: Other

Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever 1793 In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.

Avi Crispin: the Cross of Lead Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

Banks, Lynne Reid Tiger, Tiger Two tiger cub brothers are taken from the jungle to ancient Rome, where one becomes the pampered pet of Caesar's daughter and the other becomes a man-eating "entertainment act" at the Colosseum

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker Lacemaker and the Princess (France) In 1788, eleven- year-old Isabelle, living with her lacemaker grandmother and mother near the palace of Versailles, becomes close friends with Marie Antoinette's daughter, Princess Therese, and finds their relationship complicated by their different social class and by the French Revolution.

Cadman, Michael Book of the Lion In twelfth-century England, after his master, a maker of coins for the king, is brutally punished for alleged cheating, seventeen-year-old Edmund finds himself traveling to the Holy Land as squire to a knight crusader on his way to join the forces of Richard Lionheart.

Collier, James Lincoln & Christopher Collier With Every Drop of Blood While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.

Cushman, Karen Catherine, Called Birdy The 13-yr.-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

The Midwife's Apprentice In medieval England, a homeless girl is taken in by the sharp-tempered village midwife.

DeFelice, Cynthia The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker In 1849, a 12-year-old orphan becomes an apprentice to a kind physician and must choose between applying limited medical knowledge or following macabre superstition.

Holm, Jennifer L. Boston Jane Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory. !6 Klages, Ellen The Green Glass Sea It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father – but no one will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamo, NM, she learns why: he’s working on a top secret government program.

Lester, Julius Pharaoh’s Daughter: a Novel of Ancient Egypt. A fictionalized account of a Biblical story in which an Egyptian princess rescues a Hebrew infant who becomes a prophet of his people while his sister finds her true self as a priestess to the Egyptian gods.

McCaughrean, Geraldine The Kite Rider. In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life- changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.

McGraw, Eloise Jarvis The Golden Goblet Ranofer struggles to thwart the plottings of his evil brother, Gebu, so he can become master goldsmith like their father in this tale of ancient Egyptian mystery and intrigue.

McKissack, Patrick Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba Presents the diary of 13 yr. old Nzingha, a 16th century West African princess who loves to hunt & hopes to one day lead her kingdom against the invasion of the Portuguese traders.

Napoli, Donna Jo Daughter of Venice In 1592, Donata lives in her family’s palazzo on Venice’s Grand Canal. As in all noble families, only one daughter and one son will marry; Donata will be sent to a convent. Donata longs to be tutored like her brothers and to see the Venice she has glimpsed only on a map. She comes up with a plan to escape the palazzo and see the world before she is shut away.

Nye, Naomi Shihab Habibi When Liyana's doctor father, a native Palestinian, decides to move his contemporary Arab-American family back to Jerusalem from St. Louis, 14-year-old Liyana is unenthusiastic. Arriving in Jerusalem, the girl and her family are gathered in by warmhearted Palestinian relatives and immersed in a very different culture.

O’Dell, Scott The Hawk that Dare not Hunt by Day. Amid political turmoil and threats of plague, young Tom Barton accepts the risks of helping William Tyndale publish and smuggle into England the Bible he has translated into English.

Road to Damietta In 13th century Italy Rica, a young Italian woman, recounts the story of Frances Bernadone, later to become Francis of Assisi. He goes to Damietta on the Nile, where he tries to seek an end to the war between Moslems & Christians.

Park, Linda Sue Kite Fighters Eleven-year-old Young-sup overcomes his rivalry with his older brother Kee-sup, and combines his kite-flying skill with Kee-sup's kite-making skill in an attempt to win the New Year kite-fighting competition.

!7 Park, Linda Sue A Single Shard Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.

Paulsen, Gary Soldier’s heart: a Novel of the Civil War Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

Rinaldi, Ann An Acquaintance With Darkness When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and McCoys In the 1880s, young Fanny McCoy witnesses the growth of a terrible and violent feud between her Kentucky family and the West Virginia Hatfields, complicated by her older sister Roseanna's romance with a Hatfield.

Fifth of March: A Story of the Boston Massacre Fourteen-year-old Rachel Marsh, an indentured servant in the Boston household of John and Abigail Adams, is caught up in the colonists' unrest that eventually escalates into the massacre of March 5, 1770.

Stevenson, Robert Louis The Black Arrow Tale of adventure during the Wars of the Roses when Henry VI precariously occupied the throne of England.

Sutcliff, Rosemary The Shining Company 7th century Britain is brought to life in this sage of the three hundred Companions battling the invading Saxons.

Sword Song. At 16, Bjarni is cast out of the Norse settlement in the Angles’ Land for an act of oath-breaking & spends 5 yrs. sailing & witnessing the feuds of the clan chiefs of Scotland. (Vikings, Prior to 1066)

Temple, Frances The Ramsay Scallop At the turn of the fourteenth century in England, fourteen-year-old Elenor finds her betrothal to an ambitious lord's son launching her on a memorable pilgrimage to far-off Spain.

Trevino, Elizabeth Borton De I, Juan de Pareja The setting is Spain in the 1600s. Juan de Pareja was born a slave and died an accomplished and respected artist.

Uchida, Yoshiko Journey to Topaz After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans on the West Coast are evacuated to camps in the Utah desert.

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