The book, Letters From Rifka, by Karen Hesse, is this fascinating story, a journey of a Russian Jewish girl, named Rifka, immigrating to America where a few of her older brothers live during the war of Russia Civil War. Kids who like to read about historic events such as the story of Anne Frank should really like this book too.
The story comes together to this immigration because Rifka’s brother refused to join the Russian army and now they are after her family. She travels to many lands and many situations appear to her way going to America. From sickness to Rifka’s family having to move on without her. During this all of this, she writes letters to her cousin, Tovah on an Alexander Pushkin Poetry book. The main characters are Rifka and her family, which is her parents, her brothers, Saul and Nathan, and then her cousin, Tovah. Although Tovah is the one that Rifka is writing to, we don’t know any much about Tovah to much.
What I like about is how the author makes her story from Rifka’s perspective that tells her story on how she flees and the hardships of getting to America. And then she changes the mood and tone of the story like a normal kid would sound when something exciting or bad happens. And the setting goes from Russia, Poland, Belgium, and at last, she reaches to America, Ellis island. And the time event is where Russia is having a civil war, and where a lot of the jews were being persecuted by Russian soldiers.
I love this book a lot, I was given this book by my librarian to read since I  wanted to read stories about historical times. One thing I like about the book is how the author even adds the poems that Rifka is writing in. It just shows how the author sticks to what she said earlier in the book that Rifka is writing her letters from a book that was given to her.  Not only that, we can see how a little girl is being experienced from the Russian Civil War, and how people had gone through.
The book can also show a bit of how racism was still happening to the Jews before WW2, and how people were forced to leave their homes. It’s also a nice to read about during a Holocaust or WW1. It has kept me entertained for the past year and a half, and I think it will keep others entertained too. I really highly recommend for kids to read this story as well.