Search This Blog







2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (2)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa (2)
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine (1)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York (4)
- North Carolina (2)
- North Dakota
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas (1)
- Utah
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (1)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.* (1)
International:
- Australia (2)
- Canada (1)
- England (5)
- France (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (1)


2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge



2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge









Friday, January 29, 2016
Middle Grade Historical Perfectly Captures the Immigrant Experience
4:55 PM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
As violence against Jewish people grows increasingly worse in her European village, 12-year-old Sarah holds fast to her one beacon of hope—a postcard from America showing the grand Statue of Liberty. The edifice symbolizes everything for which her family yearns: freedom, peace, the chance for a new life. But it's only Sarah and her mother who cross the great ocean to see the face of the Lady. And Sarah, alone, who survives Ellis Island. Unable to stay in the country by herself, Sarah is on a boat back home when she makes the daring decision to jump off. Dragging herself to the shores of the Lady's island, the young girl takes refuge inside the magnificent statue.
Although the Lady offers her relative safety, Sarah still has to figure out a way to eat, to dodge the nighttime security guard, and to find a way into Manhattan. Even when she receives help from some surprising sources, she still has to struggle in order to survive. Life in America is difficult and strange—will it ever feel like home to a lost, lonely foreigner? Will the land that promised so much make good on its lofty vows? Or will Sarah find America just as unwelcoming as the country she left behind?
Like Sarah, I dream of someday seeing the Statue of Liberty in person. Maybe that's why stories about immigrants flocking to her feet intrigue me so much. The Girl in the Torch by Robert Sharenow is no exception. Not only does the book tell an exciting adventure tale, but it also captures perfectly the wonder and fear immigrants must have felt upon arriving in a new land. With plenty of vivid historical detail, Sharenow brings turn-of-the-century New York alive. As Sarah navigates her way through that forbidding landscape, readers get a glimpse of the kind of pluck and courage it took for an immigrant to survive the experience. Atmospheric and engrossing, The Girl in the Torch kept me completely engaged. I enjoyed it.
(Readalikes: Reminded me a little of The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), brief nudity, and vague references to alcoholism and prostitution
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
2 comments:
Comments make me feel special, so go crazy! Just keep it clean and civil. Feel free to speak your mind (I always do), but be aware that I will delete any offensive comments.
P.S.: Don't panic if your comment doesn't show up right away. I have to approve each one before it posts to prevent spam. It's annoying, but it works!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(Atom)


Reading
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Listening
If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell


Followin' with Bloglovin'

-
Movies That Suck - Mysterious Island7 minutes ago
-
-
-
Monthly Round-Up: March 20255 hours ago
-
-
Lethal Prey by John Sandford6 hours ago
-
Safe and Sound10 hours ago
-
What I Wore in Australia10 hours ago
-
-
-
Ghost Of A Holy War By Yardena Schwartz15 hours ago
-
The Rainmaker by John Grisham19 hours ago
-
-
Sunday Salon: March 30 202520 hours ago
-
-
-
Murder at the Palace by N R Daws1 day ago
-
Bookish Quote of the Day!!2 days ago
-
Nonfiction Books on BookTV2 days ago
-
One Word Titles A-to-Z3 days ago
-
-
-
A Review of Nor Gloom of Night4 days ago
-
-
-
-
I have been reading...1 week ago
-
-
February 2025 Reading Wrap Up3 weeks ago
-
-
-
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery5 weeks ago
-
-
-
-
I'm Still Reading - This Was My October4 months ago
-
Review: The Duke and I7 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus8 months ago
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-

Grab my Button!


Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ▼ 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)


2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
2023 - Middle Grade Fiction
2022 - Middle Grade Fiction
2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

Sounds like another cute one. Quit tempting me!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good one. We saw the Statue of Liberty a few years ago and it was very moving.
ReplyDelete