Letters from Rifka
Video review by Zachary
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Parent Guide
Twelve year-old Rifka is the strong Jewish heroine of this historical novel. The year is 1919 and Rifka and her family are making the arduous journey from hardship in the Ukraine to freedom in America. Rifka records her adventures in a series of letters penned to her beloved cousin, Tovah, which she writes in a volume of poetry by Pushkin. When it is discovered that Rifka has ringworm, she has to stay in Belgium while her family continues the journey without her.
Using her quick mind and her capacity for language, Rifka finally makes it to America and is reunited with her family at Ellis Island.
A multi-award winning book, Letters from Rifka inspires readers to be brave and resourceful and to never give up.
Parent Guide
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This book is worth it!
Letters from Rifka is a historical fiction novel about a family who is leaving Russia and trying to get to America. Rifka is the youngest member of the immigrant family. She is diagnosed with ringworm and forced to separate from her family until she is healthy. Even though this book is written in the present tense, at the end of each chapter, Rifka signs it as a letter to her cousin Tovah. Rifka admires and looks up to Tovah, who is still in Russia. She is writing these letters in old Russian books, but plans to figure out how to send them to Tovah when she gets to America. I found this book difficult to get into at first, but once I reached around page 20, the action and events started to pick up. I enjoyed how Rifka was so impressed by new ideas such as chocolate and ice cream. I also liked how she used her mother's locket as a way of being connected to her. In general, this is an interesting book about how one girl can be so brave. Hang in there for those first 20 pages, because after that, I'm sure it will catch your attention!