Immigrant Kids

This book is about what it was like for Immigrant kids after they came to America and is filled with real pictures taken during the time. It covers the travels here and the life once they arrived. It has sections in which an immigrant shares their own experience as a child during that time. The book can really make a kid greatful for what they have. It is great to be used with a history lesson and is accurate and powerful with its words and pictures. It could also lead into a discuss on child labor laws that followed this time. ( )

Summary:
Immigrant Kids is a book containing a various collection of photographs of children living during the late 1800s and early 1900s. This book documents millions of European immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York. These immigrants were searching for the American dream and hoping to make a new beginning. The book truly demonstrates the way children lived during this era. The kids worked all sorts of jobs but they were still children at heart.
Personal Reaction:
This was a very informational and interesting book to read. I loved looking at the photographs and seeing how these children truly lived during this time.
Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. After reading this book to my class we would have a lesson over the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We would study the way the children of the immigrants lived their daily lives.

2. After reading this book to my class I would send my students home for the weekend with a homework project. The students are to go home over the weekend and gather some family photos to present to the class on Monday. ( )

This was a book about immigrant kids that moved to New York city through out 1890-1920. Pictures showed photos from the time period. They showed pictures and described the boats coming over, reaching Ellis Island, busy NY neighborhoods, schools, child gangs, child labor. They show the cramped quarters they lived in, and how parents tried to hold on to tradition from the old country.

Reason for Reading: Read aloud to my son as part of his history curriculum.

Russell Freedman is an award winning author with an extensive backlist and I've always been confident when seeing his name on a book. This is an over-sized book, profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs. Sometimes the photograph will take up more page space than the text and many times a whole page is devoted to the photograph. The text concentrates on 1890s-1900s immigration, coming into Ellis Island and living in New York City. The children are the focus and each chapter takes a look at a specific aspect of their live work, play, school. The book is peppered here and there will actual quotes from people who were once the children this book speaks of.

The photographs are wonderful and the book can be enjoyed simply by looking through the pictures and reading the captions. It is the photos that make this book. Unfortunately, we were not very impressed with the text. It had no cohesiveness, told no one's story, just randomly gave out information, which was interesting per se, but neither of us had any connection with the author's style of imparting that information. Rather a disappointment from a book authored by Russell Freedman. I recommend getting this book out from the library and looking at the photographs as they are definitely worthwhile. ( )

This books is a wonderful book that focused on kids that immigrated. Elementary students could understand and relate to this book better because of the age that this book is about. The pictures are also very interesting.