Immigration Books

I discovered An Ellis Island Christmas while trying to research my own family's journey from Poland in 1917. Growing up, I remember my babcia (grandmother) storing her sewing supplies in a small wicker hamper with a cloth lining. This was the same container that brought my grandmother and great-grandmother's possessions from Zamosc, Poland. When I flipped through An Ellis Island Christmas and saw that beautiful watercolor of a Polish willow hamper that matched my own heirloom, it was an emotional moment.

The picture book tells the story of Krysia, a six-year-old Polish girl whose father has already left for America (as was frequently the case). Now, Krysia and her mother and brothers are boarding a steamship that will take them to Ellis Island. Their journey is a tiring one, first having to walk on foot to reach their point of departure, then facing seasickness and storms at sea before arriving at their destination. Because this is a book aimed at ages 5 and up, there are brief hints of immigrants deported for illnesses and the threat of WWI, but the story does not dwell or linger on these darker moments, instead focusing on Krysia's wonder at the journey, her friend and shipmate Zanya, and her dolls.

Christmas Eve at Ellis Island is a wondrous experience for Krysia, who discovers that Father Christmas has made the journey all the way from Poland. She also discovers bananas and electric lights for the first time.

The beautiful watercolor / colored pencil graphics truly bring Krysia's experience to vibrant life; the haunting image of the Statue of Liberty must have been exactly as my grandmother saw it when she was a little girl. The sepia-toned illustrations of a rustic Polish cottage and the imposing Ellis Island hallways are softened by the melancholy Krysia, until she smiles at last when being reunited with her papa.

This is a beautiful book to introduce younger readers to the Ellis Island immigrant experience, and it's even more meaningful for those of us who had a grandparent who immigrated in recent memory . I was lucky enough to finally track down the original ship manifests and Ellis Island documents for my Polish grandparents (who immigrated at roughly the same time as Krysia), and my personal experiences as a second-generation Polish-American made An Ellis Island Christmas even more meaningful.

If you Could bring one thing to a place you've never been to, what would you bring? Well in "An Ellis Island Christmas" a six year old girl is going to America and she can only bring one of her two dolls. So, she brings her favorite doll to America. On her journey she always asks'," when are we going to get there." When they finally got to America she only misses two things, her house and her doll that she supposudly left at home. After her family gets through the tent and are American Citizens, Krysia, the girl, gets one present from her mom for Christmas. I bet you could guess what it is.

Written from the perspective of a little girl, this story gives an excellent idea of what it was like for the immigrants who came to America during the years, 1892 to 1924. This is the story of six-year old Krysia Petrowski's voyage to America.

Krysia's father was already in America to make a new life for his family. When he had a job and a home, he sent for his wife, daughter and two sons. The decision to leave Poland, their homeland was difficult; leaving behind family and friends was not an easy thing to do. The children could only take necessary items and each child was allowed to bring just one toy. Their clothes, blankets, shoes and toys were knotted up in a sheet to be carried over the shoulder. Krysia had a problem choosing between her two beloved dolls. She took Basha because she was the smaller of the two dolls and would take up less space.

After leaving their village, it took the family four days of walking to arrive at the port where a large steamship was there to take them across the ocean. The difficult sea voyage involved poor sanitation, sickness and lack of decent food. After about fourteen days, the passengers finally view the Statue of Liberty and depart at Ellis Island on Christmas Eve.

On Ellis Island, the immigrants went through many inspections, which included medical examinations for each family member. The paperwork and examination usually took three to five hours to complete. Passing the examinations meant that the immigrants were allowed into the country. Those who did not have the proper papers or failed their medicals, were delayed for days or even months and could be sent back to their original countries.

This well written and carefully illustrated little book is ideal for children who are studying the history of America or the story of their own family.

"An Ellis Island Christmas" is a first person fictional story of a 6 year-old girl emigrating from Poland to America in the early 1900s, inspired by the author's grandmother. As I read the book, I was reminded of my grandmother's story of emigrating from a Russian-Poland border town to America in 1910 at age 6. Like the girl, Krysia, who traveled with her mother and two older brothers to meet her father in America, my grandmother traveled with her mother and older brother to meet her father and sister there. Many details are very similar to what my grandmother told me, including the long arduous journey to the ship, the ship severely rocking, and all the passengers getting sea sick. (Although in my grandmother's case, she was the only passenger who did not get sick!) With so many authentic details, from leaving home to the ride on the ship to the Ellis Island immigrant processing (including medical exam), author Maxinne Rhea Leighton captures the essence of the Eastern European immigration experience during America's peak immigration years of 1892 to 1924.

Illustrator Dennis Nolan, whose illustrations grace dozens of children's books and other publications, also does a fabulous job of capturing the immigration experience with his sensitive, softly drawn, detailed drawings. He excels in capturing expression, such as the girl earnestly trying to decide which doll she could keep, her look of slight apprehension boarding the ship, and the joyful reunion with her father.

The back of the book says it is for ages 3 to 8. I would suggest ages 6 through 9 or grades 1 through 3. At 31 pages, many containing several paragraphs of text, the book is too long and detailed to read to a preschooler as a bedtime story. But it's perfect for a young grade school child to read to him- or herself. It's a fabulous idea for a story, beautifully and sensitively executed, and although geared toward children, I believe adults would enjoy it too as I have.

Son's debut novel, an entry in the First Person Fiction series, is a tender quasi-memoir detailing his childhood in a Korean immigrant family, trying to find his place in a new and unfamiliar world. Jin-Han's father is in love with American opportunity and is determined to own his own business. He purchases a wig shop, which takes them from Chicago to Memphis to Houston, where they are at last successful. Along the way, Jin-Han experiences the usual pains of adolescence fitting in, understanding the opposite sex but with the added challenge of an unusual name, language and appearance. Son's language is at times startling with its simple elegance: Jin-Han's first kiss makes his insides feel "like a beehive on a warm, sunny afternoon," and his depiction of a dance party at a friend's house, in which the kids keep playing the same slow dance over and over, captures the essence of sweet teenage romanticism. The family dynamic is strong; Jin-Han's parents emerge as robust and complex individuals. Jin-Han ultimately emerges as his own man, a product of his family ties but not prisoner to them. The book liberally uses Korean words and phrases Jin-Han's mother is his Uhmmah, his father his Ahpbah and includes a brief glossary, which adds another pinch of flavor to an already inviting and warm story. Ages 11-15. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

One of Jin-Han Park's first memories is of the time he lost a hat that his mother had knitted for him. The wind carried it off and somehow, though he has worn many hats since then, he remembers that particular one best of all. Perhaps it is because his mother can no longer knit him a new hat.

We follow Jin-Han's memories from the time he lost his hat to when he lost his mother. These two points of reference are tied together for Jin-Han, connected forever in his heart. But there are some wonderful stories that lie between them. We can enjoy hearing about class photograph day when Jin-Han was in kindergarten, his first kiss, what it was like to become a big brother, and the many other times he shared with his family and friends.

Author John Son has created a collection of stories that will make you smile. It will also make you stop and think about the life of immigrants and the many hardships they have to face. There are so many things that need to be learned and understood. Jin-Han and his family undoubtedly must have felt isolated at times, like a small island in the vast sea of American life. We also see how the second generation can become separated from the first. Jin-Han wants to be as American as his friends are, while his parents still hold on to the Korean ways. As we watch Jin-Han grow up, we can see the divide between the parents and the boy widen; it is both interesting and sad to watch.

John Son involves us in the life of his Korean family and proves he can tell a wonderful story.

--- Reviewed by Marya Jansen-Gruber (mjansengruber@mindspring.com)

I read the paperback version of this book. It was written in simple text but yet it was very compelling. Being adopted from Korea, I thought at some points in life that living with Korean parents would be better. But after reading this book,I realized, at least I didn't have the cultural differences to go along with being a person of color.
I would recommend this book for other kids/adults that were adopted from Korea. Because it gives you insight on the way we might have grown up if we were living with our natural parents. And it fills in some of those missing blanks that all of us have.

In this memoir-ish novel of growing up in the 70s and 80s, Jin-Han's parents are Korean immigrants to the USA who make a living by running a wig shop with a predominantly Black clientele. While this entry into American capitalism was not atypical for immigrant Korean families, it is an atypical lifestyle for a child becoming an American teenager. Jin-Han's story is told at the point where these several worlds meet, and it is an engaging and moving story. Perfect for young adults and general readers. I found it to be a superior book. I really loved it.

As a genealogist I am always searching for books concerning the life and times of my ancestors. "Foreign and Female" is the best book I have read concerning women's lives and expectations in the time period 1840 - 1930. It gives insight into why the women of their time accepted and dealt with the hardships presented to them. As mentioned by a previous reviewer it will make you laugh, cry and at times become angry at the situations women faced. It will make you appreciate how fortunate women in America are in the present generation.
Ms. Weatherford's writing is detailed and well documented but never boring. It is the kind of book you will want to continue reading through the last chapter and then go back to for reference many times. It is a keeper for your personal library.
I purchased this book as used because it is "out of print", but if you can find it, I strongly urge you to buy it.

wonderful exerpts of daily lives of these brave women. Told first hand. i truly enjoyed the different way this was told about all the ethnic beliefs .Made me realize more of what my family went through when they came to this great country.Would highly recommend this book. i am a huge fan of non fiction diaries and early american life.

I bought "Foreign and Female" because I am an amateur genealogist, and I hoped to gain more insight to the lives of those 19th- and early 20th-century European female ancestors whose lives I am researching. I was not disappointed: For this purpose, I think, the book is rivaled only by Oscar Handlin's "The Uprooted", and it should be mandatory reading for any would-be American family historian.

Beyond this, though, I highly recommend "Foreign and Female" to any American--man or women--who is interested in the history of our nation, warts and all. In recounting the hunger, hardships and heartaches of women who immigrated to America between 1840 and 1930, she also touches on the story of ALL American women, and their struggle for equal rights. Moreover, because these women often were the "tentpoles" of their families, we learn a lot about the lives of their children and male relatives--fathers, brothers, and husbands--as well.

Finally, as a citizen of New York City, whose foreign-born population has surged once again to 10%(!), I valued the insight that this book gave me to the likely feelings of my immigrant neighbors and work colleagues, and their families. With the challenges that our city and country now face, understanding each other has become ever more important.

I notice that reviews of Ms. Weatherford's other books often use the word "meticulous", and that adjective applies to this work as well. It is readily apparent that this author is very smart, and undaunted by original source material that others have bypassed. She does a remarkable job of weaving together the pertinent statistics that support her understanding of the life experience of "typical" female immigrants. But what made this book so compelling for me was her presentation of the voices of these women themselves, through their diaries and letters to the Old Country. Very well balanced, and very moving.

My only criticism--and it is minor--is that the stories she tells seem to portray almost all men of this era as "cads". I do not doubt that the male chauvinism of the day was virtually universal, but do too many of her anecdotes show men as being coldly selfish, oppressive, and cruel?

I have urged my wife, who is a school teacher, and my daughter, who is a college student, to find the time to read this book. I highly recommend it, too, to all other thoughtful Americans who want to understand better where our families and our nation really came from.

This book contains so many endearing accounts of women and their lives. I smile and cry reading these stories, thinking of my own ancestors and their similar stories! After reading this book, I feel so much closer to the women to whom I am so similar, and yet never met!

A Gathering Of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates In Mexico 1948-1965 by Diana Anhalt is a solid reference and historical narrative about a group of Americans (ranging from Spanish Civil War veterans, Communist Party organizers, Hollywood activists, and other post-World War II political dissidents) who went through political exile and expatriation in Mexico for a variety of different reasons. Their individual and community struggles to adapt, political clashes, along with the personal stories of some who returned to America are all covered in-depth in this most remarkable and recommended study.

I was motivated to read Diana Anhalt's book in almost one sitting. Having grown up in the setting she describes but being well sheltered from the events, I am very impressed by her very thorough research into the smallest details of the events. She is objective and points out the extent to which governments, including our own and not excluding others, will go to in order to protect their current objectives. It makes us painfully aware of how much we should or should not allow our government to do in the name of expediency.

The fate of creative Americans trapped in the McCarthy mulcher of the early 50s is well-known, but in this splendid volume Diana Anhalt sheds much-needed light on an unfamiliar aspect of that era. Here we meet lesser lights who chose to flee their homeland and take up residence in Mexico, in a tightly-knit community of the similarly beset. This is not a scholarly treatise but a deeply personal, moving account of innocents abroad. Will appeal to the general reader in addition to those with a particular interest in this period, and is highly recommended.

We've heard about the Hollywood Ten and other Communists and those suspected of Communist activities who sought haven in Mexico in the 1950s. What happened to these people and their families as they struggled to earn a living in an alien culture, always fearful of being deported? Diana Anhalt, who was 10 years old when her parents left the Bronx for Mexico City, has tracked down many of these people and their families whom she knew from her childhood. The stories she tells sound like they could have come from the movie scripts and other writings of the fugitives who gathered in Mexico. As a witness, she makes their stories come alive in a very personal book.

I have returned to Vietnam many times...I speak the language and have known about the atrocities that occured after April 30, 1975. I have read and re-read this work and I compare it to another great book...Decent Interval by Frank Snepp. The stories are unique yet the same, reeking of betrayal and abandonment by a "friend".
The author reveals arduous research and the ability to place these anecdotes onto paper without losing emotion and perhaps color. As a previous reviewer has stated...better late than never. My congradulations and thanks to the author.
I would give this book more stars if possible.
I am the author of ...Eye of the Tiger and Thoughts Etched in Jade.

In this book, Dr. McKelvey wrote a detailed and intimate account of the South Vietnamese military officers' fates after the end of the Vietnam War.

The message is troublesome but not surprising: the military personnel were rounded into re-education camps and suffered untold tragedies from humiliation, torture, mental degradation to physical impoverishment within a communist prison system. The majority of the officers were jailed from ten to fifteen years; one officer was detained for a total of 22 years.

While 70,000 former political inmates and their families were allowed to immigrate to the U.S. through the ODP (Orderly Departure Program), many more are still living on the fringes of the Vietnamese communist society. A former major drives a pedicab for a living. In this McKelvey's book, we heard the voices of a doctor, a tailor, a politician, an engineer, a spy, a pilot, and a teacher. They all endured "grueling and unforgiving ordeals that only the strongest would have survived." Family members were ostracized for being related to the political prisoners; their wives suffered uncounted financial, emotional, physical hardships, their children barred from a decent education.

The book is one of the few that deal with the long-term psychological effects of the incarceration on the inmates and the sufferings of their relatives.

The author concludes that: 1) War does not end when peace treaties are signed because the negative rippling effects of war and destruction affect many generations to come. 2) The U.S. should be very careful about intervening militarily in any part of the World. 3) The U.S., if it does go to war, cannot simply abandon friends and allies to the mercies of common enemies.

McKelvey, a Marine veteran of Vietnam, penned a marvelous oral history of former reeducation camp survivors. The Introduction is personal and touching. The book contains four major sections dealing with interviews with former prisoners: a doctor, an engineer, a tailor, a pilot and a spy. Families of prisoners give their stories of carrying on while their loved ones were in captivity.

The author probes deeply into the postwar lives of these former public servants and officers of South Vietnam. From the initial reporting date in June 1975 until their release, the interviewees recall the brutal details of the camps, their captors and the communist indoctrination--basically hard labor and starvation. "Reeducation" is a misnomer.

Nixon and Kissinger's "Peace with Honor" never materialized. Ford took care of the refugees in the U.S. but didn't/couldn't intervene. Carter, well...he was busy with pardoning draft dodgers and Iran. The U.N. and Amnesty International finally took notice in 1979 when it was too late for the majority of those who had perished.

I give this book four stars only because it reeks of academia, its format of Q&A rather than an arcing narrative. It should be included in every Vietnam class, especially those professors and students who care to learn about America's defeated and abandoned allies.

I am a student from Vietnam and now studying in the U.S. I chanced to read this book in our university library. Thanks the AUTHOR for an insightful book.

In fact, my family background was 'clean' in the eyes of our government because my parents were not involved in any military service for the former government. But I have friends whose family situations were exactly the same as those portrayed in the book. I must say those are incredible human sufferings, and not only for one generation. I am glad some of those stories are now heard, perhaps a bit late but still, better than never.

Here's a life-time lesson for me (and perhaps some others): no matter how and what communists tell you, don't hastily believe them. Just look at what and how they do, and you'll see it for yourself. For many of them, human dignity and lives are trivial and cheap.

The first thing you'll notice about this book is the artwork. Like "Always Come Home to Me" the colors and lines seem to float over the pages; it's that vivid. They brightened my daughter's eyes as we turn page after page never stopping until we've reached the end.

The story itself is an honest one. Hannah is a cute little girl from Taiwan who with her two parents tries to assimilate to the US -- not unlike the many immigrants before her. I won't spoil the story but I will say I am thoroughly pleased this story is told and I feel my daughter will be better for it.

I can't recommend this wonderful book enough. Get it and you'll treasure this book for years to come.

Very insightful story of the author and her family as they entered into the American society. It was about their struggles to get their green card so they didn't have to hide, but could walk around in the open without fear.A very heart warming story for children and adults.

In this evocative children's tale of a Chinese family's arrival in California, Belle Yang traces her own roots. The Yangs came to this country from Taiwan when she was a young girl. As the author and creator of the the luscious color illustrations, the author has done a marvelous job of combining image and language. The story, set in San Francisco, conveys the pervasive uncertainty that colors the immigrant experience yet ultimately gives readers a story of triumph, as Hannah and her parents make their way in purusit of the American Dream. This is a children's story that is perfect for the whole family. Its message has never been more timely, nor more universal.

Not only is this book brightly illustrated depicting the action, but the story is captivating, suspenseful. Those children who have immigrated to the US will relive their history and all other children will be given a vivid insight to how it is to be a foreigner in this land. I highly recommend this book to school librarians and to parents who want their children to empathize with immigrant children. Furthermore, it's a story that helps us all appreciate how fortunate we are to live in this country even with its imperfections. The setting in San Francisco is an additional plus.

I love this book! It's an excellent tool for the classroom when teaching immigration. The kid's really relate to the story and the doodles in the margins make it feel authentic. I highly recommend this book for both teachers and students covering immigration.

We discovered these books when our 1st grader brought Rachel's Journal home from the library. After starting to read it to her, I couldn't put it down. When she had to return it, I went looking on line and bought 4 of the different journals. They are very educational and fun at the same time. It really showed our daughter how a journal can be more than a list of the day's events. THEN I realized the same author did some other books we had, the Amelia's Notebook series. Our daughter is writing in her journal every day now!

Marissa Moss has done it again! In HANNAH'S JOURNAL, as in her other historical diaries, Moss expertly braids fascinating,factual detail with a child's personal story. Hannah's perceptive, poignant voice gives the account of her travels from Lithuania to New York City total freshness and immediacy. I can think of no more enjoyable way to teach history -- the conditions on board a ship in "steerage," the ordeal of Ellis Island, the terrifying, exhilerating experience of starting life in a new country and world. Hannah's (aka Moss') beautifully executed watercolors and drawings also bring Hannah's journey and journal to life. This book is a gem.

Ten-year-old Hannah is a young Jewish girl living with her mother, father, and six brothers in a small Russian shetl in 1901. For her birthday, Hannah is given a journal. She writes witty observations of the world around her and draws clever pictures in the margins. After a violent attack on the Jews in the village, Hannah's parents decide that she should use her dead cousin's never used ticket to America. So with her other cousin, fourteen-year-old Esther, Hannah boards a train for the port and Hamburg, and then a boat for the voyage across the sea. In the face of difficult conditions, Hannah holds on to her dreams of building a better life in America and getting a real education. Highly reccomended if you enjoyed the previous two books in this series, Young American Voices, which is like a younger version of the Dear America series.

Beautifully written, fast-paced, and moving, this book is a winner. Applegate has created a strong, admirable character in Kek, a recent Sudan immigrant to Minnesota, who bravely faces his new and often strange life. An ideal book for class discussions, both young people and adults will also enjoy it as a memorable story. Like many of the best books, it widens my understanding of others while also providing a good story. I'm not surprised it was recommended to me by several friends; I'll be recommending it to many others.

Katherine Applegate's HOME OF THE BRAVE is another novel in verse that will appeal to boys as well as girls. It may help that plenty of middle grade readers already know Applegate from the ANIMORPHS series, but this book has a completely different feel to it.

HOME OF THE BRAVE is about Kek, a Sudanese immigrant who recently arrived in America after witnessing the death of his father and brother. He left his mother behind and wonders every day if she is alive. The poems that explore Kek's emotional state are poignant and accessible to young readers, and the more traumatic scenes are set alongside lighter stories of Kek adapting to life in America and experiencing new things, from snow to washing machines.

This is a kid-friendly story (those who love animals will have an additional connection) that explores a dramatic issue in current events in a manner that is personal, sensitive, and hopeful.

Author Katherine Applegate's novel HOME OF THE BRAVE is memorable and haunting. In spare verse filled with detailed imagery, she introduces us to Kek, an African refugee struggling to come to terms with the loss of his immediate family and his new life in America. On his trip from the airport to the Minneapolis home of his aunt, he spots a tired old cow on a tiny farm. He names the cow, Gol, and she becomes both his link to the past and his hope for the future.

Kek stays in the home of his aunt and his older cousin, Ganwar, who has lost a hand in the fighting in the Sudan. Kek makes new friends: young Hannah (a foster child), an older woman named Lou who owns the cow Gol, and his new ESL teacher, Ms. Hernandez. He refuses to stop hoping that his missing mother will be found, even though his immigration supervisors tell him she is most likely dead.

There are so many things to love about this story. It's very readable and the action moves quickly, so even reluctant readers will find themselves caught in the story. We see America through the heart and mind of a young immigrant. Kek comes alive for us, and soon we are seeing the world through his eyes. He faces both small and large challenges, but he takes action by finding a job on Lou's farm and urging his older, embittered cousin to join him. He helps his friend Hannah reconnect with her lost mother, and ultimately finds a new home for the cow, Gol, when Lou decides to sell her farm.

There are no wasted words in this story. Every page moves the story forward, and every word paints a vivid picture of Kek's world. By the end of the novel, I felt I'd gained a renewed respect for the idea of America as the "home of the brave."

I recommend this story to readers at all levels. Teachers will find many cross-curricular uses for the novel in the classroom. Young readers will enjoy the story on their own as well. The character Ganwar will catch the attention of high school readers, and adults will find this story a rich and meaninful experience. At a time when immigrant issues are much-debated, this novel provides a personal and heart-rending viewpoint that is sure to provoke a thoughtful response.

An outstanding novel, sure to become a classic.

Having been an arrival to this country at age 12, I've always been interested in books that explore questions such as "What is home?" "What does it mean to be a stranger in a new land?" and "How does one begin to belong?"

A novel written in free verse, Home of the Brave is a poignant story about an African war refugee from Sudan named Kek who arrives in the US in the thick of winter in--of all places--Minnesota. His father and brother have been killed, his mother is missing, and he has lost everything about his life that he has ever known. Welcome to America.

From a dry, hot land where he was part of a nomadic herding tribe, Kek has arrived in a freezing cold country where he must not only learn a new language, but also make friends and cultivate hope for his future. Usually the optimist, even Kek feels distraught upon his arrival at his new home
In the course of this tender tale, Kek makes friends--with a neighbor living in foster care, with an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and with an aging cow named Gol (which means "family" in his native language). His relationship with Gol is critical to his sense of belonging--and interestingly, it's one where language is not important.

Through a combination of touching and humorous vignettes (my favorite being the time when he puts his aunt's dishes in the "washing machine," i.e. the laundry!), Applegate allows us to accompany Kek on his journey to find "home." And, isn't that something we all want to find?

Once in a while a children's story comes along that carries you away with lyrical language, an authentic voice, and a story that allows you to make connections much larger than its plot. For me, Home of the Brave did all of the above. I'd highly recommend it as a companion read to Shaun Tan's Arrival, as well as on reading lists that deal with refugees, immigration, and home.

Berlin-based Paul Hockenos offers an insightful review of the powerful pull of diaspora communities in North America. Loaded with cash from successful "Free World" businesses, anti-Communist nationalists with often-outdated mindsets funneled the long green into post-Tito movements that revived their long-suppressed agendas. As such they came to play - as in much of former Soviet Europe - a role out of all proportion to their numbers. In this follow-up to his excellent "Free to Hate" of a decade ago, Hockenos follows the trail - often slimy - of cash and opportunism across the Balkans.

The Berlin-based Hockenos is however not without an apparent agenda of his own. In line with German journalism as a whole Hockenos is staunchly anti-Serb, taking to task those US politicians who came under the thumb of the Serb lobby, ascribing their nuanced view of Balkan realities to this lobby. Although he is critical of Croat and Kosovar lobbying activities, these swipes are largely absent in his account of their efforts in North America.

After all is said, however, it must be remembered that tails do not wag dogs. Studies of more powerful "national" lobbyists - such as AIPAC or the Cuban-National National Foundation - show that funneling money into the right pockets does work. But at the end of the day none of these lobbies has any more power than Washington wants them to. American "equivocating" in Bosnia is demonstrable proof that Hockenos laments, though it's still hard to see how a NATO ground war in Bosnia could have "done anything" but produce a proto-Iraq.

Because of this I reserve the fifth star in this review; but the other four are well-deserved for an interesting look at the blinkered complacency of emigre communities and their oft-disastrous input into devastating, rather than liberating, their ancestral homelands.

"Homeland Calling" by Paul Hockenos records the role that the diasporas played in the Balkans wars in the 1990s. Hockenos' enthusiastic and intriguing account of the individuals that he introduces to the reader rapidly struck a chord. His characters often seem larger than life -the man next door turns out to be a character in a Graham Greene novel, organising underground networks and smuggling arms to support an ethno-national ideal. Hockenos provides a peephole into the workings of these intricate networks and provides an insight into the motivations behind these actions. What of the role of these diasporas in the post-conflict Balkans? Hockenos explores the dilemma of the willingness to support the war, but reluctance to help build the democratic institutions which would ensure a lasting peace.

When I bought this book it was not out of an interest in the Balkans. I bought Homeland Calling due to an interest in the role that exiles and diasporas play in today's conflicts and in today's globalised world, particularly relating to the research I am conducting into the conflicts in Africa and the role of diasporas in these conflict. Not only has Hockenos shed some considerable light on the mechanisms of the diaspora machine, but he has also cured an allergy for anything Balkan.

I can highly recommend this book to those interested in diasporas, in the Balkans, in the dynamics of support networks for today's conflicts, or simply as a really good read.

Hockenos does an excellent job investigating the diaspora communities outside of the former Yugoslavia which were so instrumental in affecting the region. The depth of access is impressive. Hockenos makes solid connections between the diaspora communities and the former Yugoslavia, both contemporarily, during the Second World War and inter alia. This subject was just waiting to be written on, other writers of the region have temptingly made passing references but Hockenos packeged it all up. Although Hockenos made a valid disclaimer concerning objectivity and bias he obviously has strong feeling about nationalism and his own views of what happened in the former Yugoslavia are apparent. The intent of the book was as much an indictment of nationalist diaspora communities as it was an analysis. Hockenos is clearly hostile to the Croat nationalists and sympathetic to the Kosovars. However, here he is in multitudinal company and I don't think Hockenos, himself, would shy away from an anti-nationalist moniker. A deeper investigation of the Serb communities in Western Europe and the Croat communites in South America would add much to an already good work.

Beyond being a lively and dramatic account of the variety of expatriot politics within the different Croat, Serb, and Kosovar diasporas -- and between them and their homelands -- "Homeland Calling" explains much of the fractious politics within and between the remnant units of Yugoslavia; and it deftly touches on critical Euro-American policy making as well. Hockenos' concise and well-placed summaries of both remote and recent historical events set the stage for understanding the first-hand accounts of key participants' maneuvers that he so carefully weaves into his text. "Homeland Calling" goes a long way toward clarifying the complexities of a crucial decade of Balkan politics and war.

My 8-year-old daughter was assigned this book at school. She read it in about an hour and said "It's the best book I ever read in my life." She's prone to exaggeration but she's also read a lot of great books.

I LIKE IT IT WAS A SWEET STORY AND SAD BUT IT WAS GOOD

"Hope in My Heart: Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book One" is an interesting start to an immigration diary series in My America. I've read a few Ellis Island immigration related stories before (not too many), but never have I read one about the bribery incidences and detained immigrants on Ellis Island. It's so sad to think that foreigners who were coming to America for a better life were only to be greeted by evil, conniving, and thief-like people disguised as doctors, nurses, and other authoritative individuals. This book shows the frustration non-English speaking people experienced, and how they were treated as infants and senile people, in hopes of taking their belongs and sending them back to their homeland over supposed medical diseases. Kathryn Lasky wrote this wisely, leaving much to be desired about Sofia and her family, and I look forward to the sequel books. I recommend.

Nine-year-old Sofia Monari and her family have left Italy and traveled to America in hopes of finding a better life. But on Ellis Island, their trouble begins. Sofia is suspected of having a contagious disease and is separated from her family and sent to live in quarantine. There, she finds nightmarish conditions and longs to be reunited with her parents, sister, and brothers. As the weeks go by, she wonders if she will be trapped in quarantine forever, even though she was never sick to begin with. When another girl her age, an Irish immigrant named Maureen, comes to live in quarantine, Sofia makes a friend. Maureen's friendship gives Sofia the strength she needs to make it through this separation from her family, but will she ever see them again? I recommend this new book to fans of the My America series.