JOURNEY TO AMERICA

Lisa and her family need to escape Germany as quickly and as quietly as possible; they are Jewish, and Hitler’s power is growing stronger.

Lisa’s father has already left for America, and soon it will be time for the rest of the family to follow him. Told in the first-person point of view of middle sister Lisa, this is a plot-driven, fast-paced story for middle-grade readers about one Jewish family’s arduous journey to freedom. The language is simple, innocent, and accessible and only briefly alludes to Nazi abominations such as concentration camps and Kristallnacht. This removed approach to horrific historical events allows for the feelings of hope and familial love at the center of the tale to really shine through. This 50th-anniversary edition includes a brand-new afterword by the author that movingly describes her family’s very personal connection to the story and her mother’s tireless efforts to speak out against hate and intolerance after their arrival in the U.S. While it has been in print for many years, it is unfortunately still highly relevant for today’s readers. This book can serve as a gentle introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust, religious oppression, and what it can mean to be a refugee. An outdated term for Romani people that is now considered derogatory remains from the original text and is not addressed in the afterword, striking a jarring note in a modern edition.

A timely rerelease of a classic, #ownvoices story about a young girl’s journey to freedom.