Booklist - Hazel Rochman

With all the books about Ellis Island, there are few written at a low reading level. This picture book in the American Symbols series combines clear, bright computer graphics with a chatty, upbeat historical account to share at home and in the classroom. Beginning with the journey of nineteenth-century European immigrants to escape from “war, hunger, and unfair laws,” the double-page spreads move on through the “long wait” for processing on arrival, and then, for those who passed, a ticket to freedom. There is also a spread about the history of the island center, until it was finally closed in 1954 after more than 12 million immigrants had come through. The facts and statistics at the back will interest a wide age range of readers, and there is a brief bibliography. Connect this with the books about Angel Island, and also with the picture books listed in the feature “Core Collection: The New Immigration Story,” in Booklist’s August 2005 issue