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Summary
Summary
Masha, a young Russian girl, is terribly afraid of the czar, whose piercing eyes glare at her from the portrait Masha's parents must keep on the wall. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the czar's harsh anti-Semitic laws forbid Masha, who is Jewish, from going to school-something the bright, inquisitive girl desperately wishes to do. When her family immigrates to America, Masha not only achieves the long-desired education, but also gains success as a poet, and a love for her new country that will last all her life.In a picture book inspired by Mary Antin's classic immigrant memoir The Promised Land, Rosemary Wells brings renewed vigor and freshness to a story of the fundamental American experience. Dan Andreasen's warm, sympathetic illustrations glow with the hope and love that Mary finds in her new land.
Author Notes
Rosemary Wells was born in New York City on January 29, 1943. She studied at the Museum School in Boston. Without her degree, she left school at the age of 19 to get married. She began her career in publishing, working as an art editor and designer first at Allyn and Bacon and later at Macmillan Publishing.
She is an author and illustrator of over 60 books for children and young adults. Her first book was an illustrated edition of Gilbert and Sullivan's I Have a Song to Sing-O. Her other works include Martha's Birthday, The Fog Comes on Little Pig Feet, Unfortunately Harriet, Mary on Horseback, and Timothy Goes to School. She also created the characters of Max and Ruby, Noisy Nora, and Yoko, which are featured in some of her books. She has won numerous awards including a Children's Book Council Award for Noisy Nora in 1974, the Edgar Allan Poe award for two young adult books, Through the Looking Glass and When No One Was Looking, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Shy Charles.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4This picture-book biography is based upon the life of Masha (Mary) Antin, who emigrated from Russia in 1894. This account has been adapted from her memoir, The Promised Land (Ayer, 1980). Her own words appear in the margins. Life was harsh and cruel for Jews under Czar Alexanders rule. Mary felt doubly cursed; since she was Jewish and a girl, going to school was out of the question. Nevertheless, she had a desire to learn, so her father taught her to read and write. Then, he left for America with a plan to send for his family when possible. They also scrimped and saved until they could afford passage and the family was at last bound for Boston. They lived in a tenement but both Mary and her brother went to school. Mary, at age 13, was placed in the first grade, but advanced to the fifth grade within six months. This beautiful story of hope and inspiration captures the spirit of those who gave up everything for a chance at a better life. The oil paintings provide an evocative accent to the narrative. Reds, browns, and other earth tones dominate pages depicting scenes in the Old World. The colors brighten on the pages reflecting Marys new life in Boston. A fine complement to Riki Levinsons Watch the Stars Come Out (Puffin, 1995) or Barbara Cohens Mollys Pilgrim (Lothrop, 1983).Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Among a profusion of books about turn-of-the-century Russian-Jewish emigrants, Wells's (Mary on Horseback) and Andreasen's (Eagle Song) story about Mary Antin (1881-1949) stands out for its exceptional economy and tenderness. Short passages from Anton's memoir The Promised Land appear in margins here, complementing Wells's first-person text. Masha (her name was later Americanized to Mary) begins with a description of her family's life under the czarist regime. Wells avoids rhetoric, striking home with powerful details and images: an official measures her brother's nose with a ruler ("Only short-nosed Jewish boys could attend school"); after Masha's father leaves for America, the first step in the whole family's emigration, the czar's police confiscate all their possessions ("every rickety chair and pair of shoes in our house"). One of the great strengths of the text is its embrace of contradictory elements: in Boston, the Antins' tenement apartment is squalid, yet the school is wonderful. Less than a year after arriving in America, the girl writes an epic verse in praise of George Washington that gets published in a newspaper: she, like Wells and Andreasen, perceives how the slum alleyways can sometimes seem like "streets of gold." Stately oils convincingly express Masha/Mary's sorrow, yearning, confusion and blossoming text and art put a human face on an archetypal experience. Ages 5-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In this shortened, simplified version of Mary Antin's memoir, [cf2]The Promised Land[cf1], Wells describes conditions in late-nineteenth-century Russia, Mary's passage across the ocean to America, and her first year in school, which culminates in the publication of a narrative poem the new immigrant writes about George Washington. The writing is smooth, rich, and filled with memorable images; the oil paintings are warm and detailed. From HORN BOOK Spring 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-5. Mary Antin's The Promised Land, first published in 1912, is a classic memoir of a young Russian Jewish immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1894. This moving picture-book biography for older readers draws on Antin's memoir to tell a pared-down, partly fictionalized story of her childhood: her harsh life in Russia, where the closeness of her family sustained her through years of persecution; the difficulty of leaving the old country; and then her new life in a Boston slum, where at 13 she found the miracle of a free education, even for a Jewish girl. Wells' simple, lyrical first-person narrative is true to the spirit of the original; and with each one-page episode, she includes in the margin a quote from Antin ("I was warmed and watched over at home," she says of her family). Andreasen's luminous, full-page oil paintings are beautiful, maybe too beautiful for this story. The glossy, romantic scenes express little of the hardship of the immigrant struggle, though one unforgettable picture shows racist persecution in harsh detail--the czar's police measure Antin's brother's nose with a ruler, since only short-nosed Jewish boys could attend school. Most moving is Antin's celebration of education. Wells captures the excitement of the 13-year-old immigrant's first day in first grade and her almost immediate astonishing success as a writer ("I dug the words out of my heart," Antin said). As in Mary on Horseback (1998), Wells has found riches in women's history. Teachers may want to use this to introduce more of Antin's original story in the classroom. --Hazel Rochman