Letters From Rifka
Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse is a wonderful book of historical fiction. It’s about an immigrant and her family on their journey to America. But Rifka gets left behind cause she has ringworm. In every letter to Rifka’s cousin Tovah Rifka writes what happens the past week. Karen Hesse uses good literary language. For example on page 4 she writes, “His dimple vanished as quickly as it came.” Or on page 8, “My heart beat in my throat where my voice should be.” And finally, “Ilya’s eyes flashed with anger.” Karen Hesse did a good job researching this book. She learned about ringworm, about life on the ship, and what might happen to an immigrant like Rifka when she arrived with a bald head (she might get sent back because they worried she wouldn’t get married and the government would have to take care of her). I really recommend the book Letters from Rifka.
Powered by FireStats
January 29th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I also have read this book too hh, and it was truly great. I really like how you desicrbed the book as well as Karen Hesse did. Didn’t you love when she discovered bananas, ice cream and chocolate from Belgium? I did. Don’t you want to know more about Isaac, Asher, and Reuben? I know I do.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
HH,
I loved your blog post. You had great examples of alliteration. I agree about the research the Karen Hesse did. If you read my blog you’ll see that I did some research and found out about typhus and it turned out in Rifka’s area there was a lot of dying because of typhus. One Thought– I’d really like to know why you think this is good historical fiction.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I’m so glad you enjoyed this book!