Letters from Rifka: Difference between revisions
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== Plot == |
== Plot == |
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During the [[Russian Civil War]], Rifka and her family flee persecution. She tells her story in a series of letters to a cousin who remains behind in Russia, written in the blank spaces of an edition of [[Pushkin]]'s poetry. Rifka, her parents, and her brothers |
During the [[Russian Civil War]], Rifka and her family flee persecution. She tells her story in a series of letters to a cousin who remains behind in Russia, written in the blank spaces of an edition of [[Pushkin]]'s poetry. Rifka, her parents, and her brothers Nathan and Saul, escape Russia, hoping to join the three older sons who have been living in America for years. Along the way, they face cruel officials, [[typhus]], hunger, theft, [[ringworm]], and a separation that threatens to keep Rifka from ever rejoining her family. She is constantly reminded she must be clever and brave, but her true salvation can only come when she learns compassion. While she is stranded at [[Ellis Island]], she finds she has a talent for nursing and for literature |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 20:00, 1 May 2013
| Author | Karen Hesse |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's historical novel, epistolary novel |
| Publisher | Henry Holt & Co. (Macmillan) |
Publication date | July 15, 1992[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 148 pp |
| ISBN | 9780805019643 |
| OCLC | 25205387 |
| LC Class | PZ7.H4364 Le 1992[2] |
Letters From Rifka is a children's historical novel by Karen Hesse, published by Holt in 1992. It features a Jewish family's emigration from Russia in 1919, to Belgium and ultimately to the U.S., from the perspective of daughter Rifka, based on the personal account by Hesse's great-aunt Lucille Avrutin.[3]
Hesse and Letters won the 2012 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association, recognizing the best children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award.[4] Among contemporary honors it won the 1993 National Jewish Book Award in category Children's Literature.[5]
The protagonist's name, Rifka, is the East European Jewish version of Rebecca (Rivká in Modern Israeli Hebrew).
Plot
During the Russian Civil War, Rifka and her family flee persecution. She tells her story in a series of letters to a cousin who remains behind in Russia, written in the blank spaces of an edition of Pushkin's poetry. Rifka, her parents, and her brothers Nathan and Saul, escape Russia, hoping to join the three older sons who have been living in America for years. Along the way, they face cruel officials, typhus, hunger, theft, ringworm, and a separation that threatens to keep Rifka from ever rejoining her family. She is constantly reminded she must be clever and brave, but her true salvation can only come when she learns compassion. While she is stranded at Ellis Island, she finds she has a talent for nursing and for literature
See also
References
- ^ Letters from Rifka. Google Books. Retrieved 2013-03-03. With linked preview, pages 1–15.
- ^ "Letters from Rifka / Karen Hesse". Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-03-03.
- ^ Karen Hesse, "Author's Note", Letters from Rifka (Puffin Books, 1993; ISBN 0140363912), pp. ix–x.
- ^
"Phoenix Award Brochure 2012". Children's Literature Association. Retrieved 2013-03-03.
See also the current homepage, "Phoenix Award". - ^ "NJBA Winners". Jewish Books Council. Retrieved 2013-03-03.