Scan barcode
A review by huncamuncamouse
Dreams In The Golden Country: the Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 by Kathryn Lasky
5.0
I really enjoyed this book, which very much feels like a coming-of-age story. There is a lot of growth in just the short year in Zippy's life--and it's not just her own growth but her entire family, who have just arrived in New York. This is one of the first books where the parents feel like fully realized characters, and a lot of the other tertiary characters are interesting--although Tovah does feel a bit one-note, and I don't really get all the anti-union snark considering that a horrible factory accident happens near the end of the book. There should have been more reflection from Zippy; a moment of reckoning that the unsafe conditions people were working under had been just one thing Tovah was JUSTIFIABLY concerned about from the beginning.
The community that forms around Zipporah's family is quite compelling. It was refreshing to see them support each other.
Despite two tragedies in the final third of the book (more on that below) and some family conflict, this book has a cozy feel about it, and it ends happily. Of all the narrators so far, Zippy is maybe my favorite.
Dead Parent Count: Zero. But a friend dies graphically in a fire that was clearly inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster. And shortly thereafter, a prematurely born sibling dies, but I personally didn't think that plot point added much of anything to the story, and while I know this was common, it felt kind of cheap.
The community that forms around Zipporah's family is quite compelling. It was refreshing to see them support each other.
Despite two tragedies in the final third of the book (more on that below) and some family conflict, this book has a cozy feel about it, and it ends happily. Of all the narrators so far, Zippy is maybe my favorite.
Dead Parent Count: Zero. But a friend dies graphically in a fire that was clearly inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster. And shortly thereafter, a prematurely born sibling dies, but I personally didn't think that plot point added much of anything to the story, and while I know this was common, it felt kind of cheap.