I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project

by Veronica Lawlor Narrated by Catherine Byers, Victor Bevine, Various, Wendy Bagger

Overview

In their own words, immigrants recall their arrival in the United States. Includes brief biographies and facts about the Ellis Island Oral History Project.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Lawlor's debut, a picture-book collection of pieces culled from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, is visually and emotionally stunning. In 15 carefully chosen excerpts, immigrants from various ethnic backgrounds recount their reasons for coming to America and describe their feelings about leaving their country, about making the trip or about arriving on a foreign shore; all but two of the narrators were under 20, one only six at the time of their voyages. Whatever the circumstances, each vignette reflects a strong sense of hope. Lawlor's handpainted paper collages are equally powerful. Their haunting images are strikingly set against ecru-colored pages that bear faintly printed motifs from the pictures they border. Spare details-a girl floating past Lady Liberty, a figure literally putting down roots in two lands-capture these travelers' turbulent emotions. This selection gives credence to the reminiscences of an Ellis Island inspector: "In those days there were crying and laughing and singing all the time at Ellis Island." Ages 12-up. (June)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Begun in 1975, the Ellis Island Oral History Project is an informal collection of interviews with individuals who immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island. Short selections-each 1 or 2 paragraphs long-from 15 of those interviews are reprinted here. The subjects were for the most part children when they arrived in the period 1900-1925. One was future Israeli leader Golda Meir. Many of the selections describe the facility itself; others talk of family and feelings. Opposite each remembrance is a striking, childlike, hand-painted collage; both are superimposed on a beige-toned reproduction of the collage picture. This is an attractive offering, but beyond mere browsing it may lack an audience. Other books geared to specific immigrant groups, such as the Hooblers' The Irish American Family Album (1995) and The Italian American Family Album (1994, both Oxford) contain similar information quoted more extensively.-Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA

From the Publisher

"Whatever the circumstances, each vignette reflects a strong sense of hope. Lawlor's handpainted paper collages are equally powerful."—Publisher's Weekly

"This is an affecting little book that should help all of us remember the grit and hope that formed our nation."—Children's Literature 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169181692
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/19/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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