 Would Mama like it in America? Becky wondered. In the two long years since she’d last seen Mama, so much had changed. Becky had gone to school and grown used to finding her way around New York’s crowded streets. Some days it was hard to believe she’d come from a quiet farming village in Russia. It was hard to remember how much she and Rachel and Jake had first hated their small Lower East Side tenement. Now that Mama was finally coming, Becky cleaned and polished and helped Rachel make a special surprise. She wished she could do more, until Mama arrived—with a surprise of her own for Becky. Marietta Moskin brings a personal warmth and realism to her story of finding a new life in America which is enhanced by the feeling for the flavor and detail of the period shown in Richard Lebenson’s sensitive illustrations. The story creates a moving portrait of one Russian family which also illuminates the experiences of many immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. |
