Letters from Rifka

by Karen Hesse

Book Overview

From Newbery media winner Karen Hesse comes an unforgettable story of an immigrant family's journey to America.

"America," the girl repeated. "What will you do there?"
I was silent for a little time.
"I will do everything there," I answered.

Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams that in the new country she will at last be safe from the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312535619
• ISBN13: 9780312535612
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Square Fish
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

You have to buy good books for your family

It's a very good book for my 13'th daughter. We live in México and the english teachers recomended us to buy this book

Inspiring story!

Written as a series of letters from Rifka to a cousin back in Russia, this book tells the story of a Jewish girl's tortured path of emigrating to the US. Rifka and her family leave Russia in 1919 after her brothers flee from the Russian army, where Jewish draftees are abused and often killed. Rifka is the only girl and is a key part of their escape, and then must call on even more resources when illness leads to her being left behind in Poland, having to follow on her own after she recovers. The letter format made this a quick and easy read and very inspiring too, especially after the words from the author reveal that the story is based on the true story of what one of her relatives endured in emigrating to America. It's a great read for 9-13 year olds interested in immigration and history, and especially for girls as it portrays an independent and resourceful heroine who is able to first help her whole family escape from Russia and then travel on her own the majority of the way to the United States. Not an easily forgotten story, even for this adult reader.

Enthralling immigration story

I started reading this book because it won an impressive number of awards: National Jewish Book Award International reading Association Children's Book Award Sydney Taylor Book Award American Library Association Notable Book School Library journal Best Book of the Year Horn Book Outstanding Book of the Year, and Booklist Editor's Choice. However once I started reading it, I was taken with the simple and compelling story. The book consists of a series of letters written by 12 year old Rifka to her cousin in Russia. They start when in 1919, to avoid persecution, Rifka and her parents and two older brothers have to suddenly leave Russia in the middle of the night with just a small backpack and the clothes on her back. One of these few possessions is a book of Pushkin's poetry given to her by her cousin Tovah. Their destination is the United States where two of her brothers already live. To calm her fears and give her something to do during the lonely hours of travel, Rifka starts to write letters to Tovah in the blank spaces in the book. The story evolves through these letters which Rifka knows she will not be able to mail until she reaches the US. In the book, each letter is preceded by a quote from a Pushkin poem. Rifka's trip is not easy. She gets separated from her family and it takes over a year before she learns if she will be reunited with them. At a time when Jewish children are normally surrounded with family celebrating their coming of age, Rifka is alone and in charge of her own destiny. The book excels in character development, historic accuracy, and plot. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in immigration stories, Jewish history, or young women's literature.

It's so exiting & you never know what will happen.

This is one of my favorite books. One of the reasons that I like it so much is because you can acually imagine yourself as Rifka. You can feel the way that she does and you just want to read on and on and on. This book tells you about how the Russians treated the Jews. This book is so exciting clear until the end. It doesn't all of a sudden stop either, like some other books I've read.I would definitely reccommend this book to anyone.

I love this book!!! It was great!

I absolutely loved this book so much that I had to read the entire thing all at once. This is a (partially) true story about a 12-13 year-old Jewish Russian girl who immigrates to America with her family during WWI. The author was very descriptive of immigrants' hardships on their voyages to America, which is part of why I loved the story so much. The other reason I enjoyed the book was because Rifka had a great personality and she wrote not only about the world around her, but her own life in letters to her cousin Tovah. She didn't actually send the letters, she just kept a diary in a poetry book by Pushkin which Tovah had given her as a gift. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and I recommend it to anyone who loves history or loves a great story.