"In letters to her cousin back 'home' in Russia, 12-year-old Rifka tells of her journey to America in 1919, from the dangerous escape over the border through Europe and across the sea to the new country."--"Booklist." Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Twelve-year-old Rifka's journey from a Jewish community in the Ukraine to Ellis Island is anything but smooth sailing. Modeled on the author's great-aunt, Rifka surmounts one obstacle after another in this riveting novel. First she outwits a band of Russian soldiers, enabling her family to escape to Poland. There the family is struck with typhus. Everyone recovers, but Rifka catches ringworm on the next stage of the journey--and is denied passage to America (``If the child arrives . . . with this disease,'' explains the steamship's doctor, ``the Americans will turn her around and send her right back to Poland''). Rifka's family must leave without her, and she is billeted in Belgium for an agreeable if lengthy recovery. Further trials, including a deadly storm at sea and a quarantine, do not faze this resourceful girl. Told in the form of ``letters'' written by Rifka in the margins of a volume of Pushkin's verse and addressed to a Russian relative, Hesse's vivacious tale colorfully and convincingly refreshes the immigrant experience. Ages 9-12. Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 4-7--Refused passage in 1919 because she has ringworm, a young Jewish girl from Russia battles supercilious officials and yards of red tape before she is finally reunited with her family in America. Historical fiction with a memorable heroine, a vivid sense of place, and a happily-ever-after ending. Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 5-8. In letters to her cousin back "home" in Russia, 12-year-old Rifka tells of her journey to America in 1919, from the dangerous escape over the border to the journey through Europe and across the sea to the new country. Rifka gets ringworm and has to stay behind in Belgium for nearly a year while her parents and brothers go on to America. The best part of the book is about her time on Ellis Island, in limbo, waiting to see if the authorities will declare her infection-free. The letters format is occasionally contrived, and few kids will care for the inflated poetry that heads each letter, though it is moving to discover that she's writing everything in the margins of her beloved book of Pushkin. The letters do allow her to bring in memories of what she has left behind, including the fierce racist persecution. Based on the experience of Hesse's great-aunt, the narrative flashes occasionally with lively Yiddish idiom ("You are bored?" her mother says to Rifka, "So I'll hire you a band"). What especially raises it above docu-novel is the emerging sense of Rifka's personality. Bald from the ringworm, poor and needy, she proves she's no greenhorn; she has a gift for languages, she's brave and clever, and if she talks too much, so be it. (Reviewed July 1992)0805019642Hazel Rochman From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.