Letters from Rifka

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Summary: Letters from Rifka
Review: "Letters From Rifka" is about a young jewish girl who lives with her parents and two brothers, Nathan and Saul in Russia around World War II. They later leave russia, because all the Jewish people are being captured and tortered by the Russians.The family goes to America to live a better life, but on way rifka developes a disease called, "The Ringworm" which caused all her hair to fall out. The Government won't let her enter America, so her family left her on an island, not far from New York City. She is left with special doctors to help her heal her Ringworm. she later becomes cured and joins her family in America.
My favorite part of the book was when she was in the hospital, the one she was left on to cure her "Ringworm",and takes care of another patient in the hospital. this patient is a young orphan russian boy. Rifka is like a mother to him. the boy only speaks to rifka and not his doctors,who want to send him back to Russia. I thought that was nice of her, even though Rifka was only "13".
I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys diary-type books that take place in the past.

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Summary: I love this book!!! It was great!
Review: I absolutely loved this book so much that I had to read the entire thing all at once. This is a (partially) true story about a 12-13 year-old Jewish Russian girl who immigrates to America with her family during WWI. The author was very descriptive of immigrants' hardships on their voyages to America, which is part of why I loved the story so much. The other reason I enjoyed the book was because Rifka had a great personality and she wrote not only about the world around her, but her own life in letters to her cousin Tovah. She didn't actually send the letters, she just kept a diary in a poetry book by Pushkin which Tovah had given her as a gift. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and I recommend it to anyone who loves history or loves a great story.

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Summary: letters from rifka
Review: I chose this book because the cover looked interesting. also because I read what the story was about, and thought it was a good book.This book is about a young,jewish girl who lived arond World War II. she once lived in russia but had to leave because of the hatred of the jews. she was going to america with her parents and two brothers, Nathan and Saul. what the sad part of the book was, when she was on her way to america, she developed two diseases, typhus and ringworms.the government wouldnt allow rifka to go to america. she was seperated from her family until her diseases were cured. the reason that the book is called "letters from rifka" is because she writes fake letters like a diary in the the one possesion she owns, a small book of poetry by a poet named "pushkin". when she runs out of room to write in the book, she will send it to her cousin, tovah, who still lives in russia. i really enjoyed this book because of the events that happened in this book.

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Summary: By far the best book i read all year
Review: I started reading this book because it won an impressive number of awards:

National Jewish Book Award
International reading Association Children's Book Award
Sydney Taylor Book Award
American Library Association Notable Book
School Library journal Best Book of the Year
Horn Book Outstanding Book of the Year, and
Booklist Editor's Choice.

However once I started reading it, I was taken with the simple and compelling story.

The book consists of a series of letters written by 12 year old Rifka to her cousin in Russia. They start when in 1919, to avoid persecution, Rifka and her parents and two older brothers have to suddenly leave Russia in the middle of the night with just a small backpack and the clothes on her back. One of these few possessions is a book of Pushkin's poetry given to her by her cousin Tovah. Their destination is the United States where two of her brothers already live.

To calm her fears and give her something to do during the lonely hours of travel, Rifka starts to write letters to Tovah in the blank spaces in the book. The story evolves through these letters which Rifka knows she will not be able to mail until she reaches the US. In the book, each letter is preceded by a quote from a Pushkin poem.

Rifka's trip is not easy. She gets separated from her family and it takes over a year before she learns if she will be reunited with them. At a time when Jewish children are normally surrounded with family celebrating their coming of age, Rifka is alone and in charge of her own destiny.

The book excels in character development, historic accuracy, and plot. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in immigration stories, Jewish history, or young women's literature.

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Summary: An Amazing tale of a Young girls Voyage
Review: Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse is an amazing epic of a young girl's journey form Russia during the First World War. Rifka is a young Jewish girl whose family is forced to flee to America. Because Rifka does not look Jewish, she is the decoy of her family. Rifka shows amazing courage throughout everything and comes through for her family but her family does not come through for her. Complications arise and Rifka is forced to face a new land. She puts on a brave face to the world but confides her secrets and fears to you through letters to her cousin, Tovah. I recommend this book to you because it was well written as well as exciting. The author paints vivid pictures in your mind. You really feel as if you have gotten to know the compassionate and brave person that Rifka is. Rifka's story is really one to remember and Karen Hesse tells the story wonderfully. In the beginning, when Rifka must distract the anti-Semitic soldiers while her family boards the train to Poland, The guards become suspicious and Rifka becomes frantic. You really feel the tenseness in the air. The author makes you relive the adventures that Rifka writes of. There are many more exciting adventures such as this one. I could not put the book down when complications arose at Ellis Island. This is an exciting and compelling story of the courage of a young girl and the faith she had in herself and Hesse tells the story beautifully. People of a religion other than Judaism may not be interested in a book about a Jewish family, but the book is well written portrait of anti-Semitism in the early 1920's. It is an important topic for people of all faiths to learn about. The hate expressed towards Jews at that time was nothing to ignore. If people are educated on this subject, then history will not repeat itself. In a way you are learning, but you are learning in a fun way. And anyway, the story is not about Rifka's religion; it's about the risks he must take because of it. The book is wonderful and I loved it.

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Summary: Excellent Jewish History Book
Review: Letters from Rifka is a kids novel that is a good read if you want to know more about life as a Jew in the past. Rifka is a girl whose family is trying to flee Russia's horrible treatment and go to America. Things just don't seem to work out for her and her family though and she ends up being left behind. As the title suggests, this book is written as a collection of letters to her cousin Tovah. This book has won the National Jewish Book Award by the JWB Jewish Book Council and it was rightfully earned. I recommend this story to those in grade 4 and up.

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Summary: Strike 3, Your out!
Review: Letters From Rifka is one of the best books i've ever read! It was an adventurous story about a young girl and her hopes to reach America. She has struggles along the way, but gets through it in the end. It also tells about the troubles Jews had with Russians and how they were treated differently.I recommend this book to you.

Rating:
Summary: Letters from Rifka
Review: The name of the book I read Is called Letters From Rifka,which Is historical fiction. The main character of the book Is Rifka who tries to escape froom the Russian guards that are cruel to Jews.
I rated this book as a 4 because It had a lot of things I can relate to. For example,In letters from Rifka her mom sees that Rifka becomes friends withIlya and her mom's disappointed because Ilya Is Russian and because the Russians are cruel to Jews. I can relate to that situation when my mom saw a friend of mine and she doesn't like her because of the way she acts. The two situations are different because Rifka mother was commenting about how her daughter was friends with a Russian and my mother was making a decision on how my friends act. But the two situations are also similar because the two parents are worried about who are their children hanging out with.
What I learned from this Is when my I'm a parent I'll let my children be friends with anybody they want to as long as my children don't do bad things like the other children do.