Streets of Gold

By Rosemary Wells

Masha, a young Russian girl, is terribly afraid of the czar, whose piercing eyes glare at her from the portrait Masha's parents must keep on the wall. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803721498
• ISBN13: 9780803721494
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Dial
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.2" x 0.5" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 5 years and up
• Grade Range: Kindergarten and higher

Customer Reviews

A Jewish girl's journey to America

This is a true story about a young girl named Masha in the late 1800's who questions the rules that she has to follow as a Jew living under a Russian czar. Her life is turned upside down when her father leaves the family and travels to America for a better life. Once he is gone, the Russians torment Masha's family, taking away all of their belongings. Finally, Masha is able to travel to America with her brother and start a new life. Once there, Masha and her brother are reunited with their father and are able to go to school for the first time. For an assignment, Masha writes an inspiring poem worthy of being published in the Boston Herald. Rosemary Wells brought a wonderful, inspiring story back into the spotlight with this book. I would recommend this book to children of the 4th through 6th grade level. Teachers can easily use this book for many objectives including but not limited to: Setting, cause and effect, fact and opinion, context clues, text structure, main idea, summary, compare and contrast, and sequence. This book can also very easily be connected to writing. The descriptions given in the book of both Russia and America are outstanding.

A wonderful story about overcoming hardship

This book has a special meaning for me and my family. Both my husband's and my ancestors were Jews who left Russia after enduring centuries of discrimination and danger. As our children get older and time creates more distance between us and what our ancestors suffered, I find myself seeking out these stories so that they can appreciate just how privileged a life we lead now. This is the perfect story to make that point. Without any hint of adult indignation or politics, the author tells the story from the point of view of the young girl who has to watch as her brother's nose is measured to see if he can go to school (he can't); who knows that her parents have to stay and work in one section of town because they are Jewish but does not understand why; who is desperate to learn and escape from an illiterate destiny as a shopkeeper; and who listens in childhood terror to a man broken as a boy by the czar's soldiers, for the sole "crime" of being Jewish. The book is also honest about the Masha's/Mary's believable childhood desires. At one point, she encounters a wealthy non-Jewish Russian. When asked what she wants, she thinks to herself that she wishes she could have her hair and shoes. Adults would probably be too proud to admit to such things, but a child would not- and thinking those things under those circumstances doesn't make her any less Jewish or at all ashamed of such. The most touching parts of the story are the interactions with her beloved father and her less seen but equally devoted mother. Though forbidden by Russian law to go to school, her father takes her deep into the woods to read the five books they own. Later, when her father leaves for the United States to make a better life for them, her mother works to secure the best life she can for her children. The most heartbreaking moment in the book comes when Masha, her mother and brother finally leave Russia; in doing so, they also say goodbye to her older sister, whom Masha will never see again. The streets of America are not, of course, paved with gold, and Masha lives in a hot tenement near drunks and dope addicts. However, she remains studious and ambitious, taking shelter in school and in her parents' support. By the end of the story, she has mastered her new language well enough to have a poem published in the Boston Globe. This is a wonderful story that, although set in the past, can resonate with younger readers, because although it is not 1894, there are still plenty of hardships both natural and man-made that people must overcome.