The Girl in the Torch

Reviewed by: Sally Holt - Raymond Village Library, Raymond, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 23, 2015

Review

The author wrote this book from a personal perspective as his great-grandparents immigrated to the United States form Czarist Russia. His great grandfather brought with him one special item. Fine tailoring skills and an excellent pair of scissors. This true story inspired him to write about a resourceful and very young immigrant girl who loses her mother just after they land in America looking for a new and better life like so many before her.

Sarah is told she cannot stay in the United States without her mother and must return to the country of her birth but jumps ship and hides out in the Statue of Liberty until she manages to escape to Manhattan to live in a rooming house with other colorful characters. Her tenacity and great will to survive and make a better live resonates throughout the book.

This book really brings home the poignancy of the struggle and great hardship immigrants had to endure to find their home in America.

In the back of the book are sources, and a timeline of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the United States Immigration Policy.

A good read written in a manner that will grab the attention of most young readers and give them a great starting point to begin reading more factual accounts of this period of time.

Overall Book Score: very good