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Letters from Rifka | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Hesse
Publisher: Puffin
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $6.98 (100%)
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Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 21948
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.4
ISBN: 0140363912
EAN: 9780140363913
ASIN: 0140363912
Publication Date: November 1, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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Product Description
"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 Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In it, she records her observations and experiences in the form of letters to Tovah, the beloved cousin she has left behind.Strong-hearted and determined, Rifka must endure a great deal: humiliating examinations by doctors and soldiers, deadly typhus, separation from all she has ever known and loved, murderous storms at sea, detainment on Ellis Island--and is if this is not enough, the loss of her glorious golden hair.Based on a true story from the author's family, Letters from Rifka presents a real-life heroine with an uncommon courage and unsinkable spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...
 dairy of a Jewish immigrant left behind by her family May 26, 2008
Kelsey May Dangelo (Vermont)
Rifka and her family are forced to flee their home in Russia because of religious persecution. After battling Typhus in Poland, Rifka contracts ringworm and must be left behind as her family continues ahead to America. This well-written (in diary-form) young adult novel is the coming-of-age tale of a Jewish immigrant and her journey through Ellis Island and into adulthood. Grade: B
 A wonderful book.. August 29, 2007
Michelle Polk (Mississippi, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
not too graphic and that is the way I like it. I read this book to my children for our unit study and they liked it also. There are plenty of books out there that do their share of describing and I like those too but sometimes we just need to know there a few happy endings and this one is one of those books.
Rifka and her family set out on a trip to leave their homeland that hates them to a place called America. Rifka ends up being left behind for health reasons and so starts her own journey to America. She grows and has matured by the time she makes it to Ellis Island. Her family reunion is a good one and the very last surprise is a sweet addition to the ending!
 Letters from Rifka January 19, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Letters From Rifka. About a girl trying to get toAmerica their are some speed bumps in the road. She gets sick and some people die. But she finally gets a ride to America but she has to go to a hospital before she can go to her family. And to pass the time she teaches a boy to read,and takes care of a baby with typhus because she already had it and can't get it again.
The message in this book is to Never Give Up Hope even when things get tough. People should be like Rifka and be brave when bad things happen to good people.I connect with this book because her life is hard and my life is hard too.I have a great opinion of this book.
toching story- the immigrant happy end story January 4, 2007
niki (Israel)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
this book describe vividly a child experience through the immigration process and it gives the personal and human point of view of the dramatic process most of us or our families had experiences, very improtant to all scholars
Inspiring story! August 8, 2006
Colleen McMahon (Atlanta, GA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
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.
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