YOSSEL'S JOURNEY

In the 19th-century American Southwest, a Jewish boy from Russia befriends a Navajo boy.

Yossel’s family is fleeing Russia to avoid the soldiers of the czar. They sail first to New York, then take a train to Topeka and another to Santa Fe, and finally travel by horse-drawn covered freight wagon to a Navajo reservation. Uncle Izzy left Yossel’s family his trading post when he died, and now they’re responsible for selling “coffee and beans and seed” to their neighbors. Eight-year-old Yossel learns some English and Navajo from listening to the customers but doesn’t speak to anyone until he meets Thomas, a Navajo boy. Stylized illustrations depict the boys playing with Star Eye the sheep, eating blintzes, and having a sleepover at Thomas’ hogan. Yazzie’s warm acrylics in bright pinks, blues, and yellows paint the setting in the colors of desert sunshine (even Russia and New York seem Southwestern, with New York homes that “rub shoulders” illustrated as pink-trimmed, greenery-draped, single-story cottages). Given Yossel’s history as someone forced to flee his home due to ethnic violence, it’s a surprise to see none of the parallel story for Thomas (during roughly the time of the forced deportation of the Navajo by the U.S. government). Instead, this is a pleasing, sun-drenched tale of friendship in a new place. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Though not without a misstep, this is a charming picture book that blends two rarely combined cultures.