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Rebecca And Ana (American Girl (2011)

by Jacqueline Dembar Greene(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

American Girl

series

American Girls: Rebecca

review 1: As the patriotic season of singing in an assembly, Rebecca`s class comes first. She has her cousin Ana with her, and Ana still speaks broken English, and still mostly Yiddish. But when she sings with Rebecca, she has a big surprise, Ana doesn`t want to sing, she just waves her flag patriotically. At the end Rebecca asks, 'Why did you just wave your flag?' 'I was feeling patriotic, that`s all!' Ana answered.
review 2: rebecca & her family go down to where the ferry docks to greet their family that has just made the trip from russia. rebecca's father goes to ellis island to meet everyone & assure officials that family is available to help the new immigrants get settled in the united states. when the ferry docks, rebecca is relieved to find that her cousin ana ma... morede the trip safely. she hopes that she & ana will become the best of friends--almost like twins! but everyone is shocked to discover that ana's older brother jacob hurt his leg on the trip over & is being held at ellis island. if his leg can't be mended, he may be sent back to russia, alone. everyone is wicked bummed about that (to say the least).rebecca hopes ana will be allowed to stay in her class at school, but ana's grasp of english is pretty shaky. rebecca's teacher only allows students to speak english ("so they will learn"--pshaw), & rebecca gets in trouble for explaining instructions to ana in yiddish. she has to sit in the corner & wear a dunce cap. this seriously sounds so oppressive to me. there are 42 kids in rebecca's class, english-only education, & transgressions are punished with humiliation? what is this, 1914?...oh. yeah. it is.the teacher announces that there will be a patriotic assembly at the end of the week, & the students will recite yay america poems. one student will be selected to sing a solo. students who are interested are singing are asked to audition the next day. rebecca is psyched about the prospect of being the center of attention & singing a solo at the assembly. after school, she goes to the vendors on orchard street to buy sheet music to "you're a grand old flag," inspired by her uncle max's rendition of it at the dock when they greeted ana's family fresh from ellis island. there's a pretty hilarious scene where rebecca haggles the vendor down to a price she can afford by yelling, "help! this man is trying to rob a little girl!" ana catches on to haggling pretty quickly & manages to buy some bananas as a snack for rebecca & herself. meanwhile, everyone is stressing about jacob still being held at ellis island, & the building super, mr. rossi, wants ana's family to clear out because tenants aren't supposed to have boarders. ana's father & older brother are racing around, trying to line up jobs so they can get their own apartment. ana's father says he thinks he can find work at a coat factory, which of course, because this is 1914, is actually a sweatshop. but being a new immigrant, his options are limited.rebecca sings her son at the audition & is selected to sing the solo. but the teacher says ana has to sing it with her because she doesn't know enough english to recite a poem. so how does she know enough english to sing a song? whatever. the teacher says rebecca will have to coach her. rebecca's friends are jealous that ana gets to sing a song without auditioning, & rebecca is upset that she has to steal the spotlight. she's also worried that ana will mess up the song with her russian accent. much agonizing commences, as ana seems incapable of losing the accent in four days. finally, rebecca asks herself how she would feel if ana didn't want rebecca to sing. she realizes she would feel terrible. she decides she can't ask ana not to sing & will just have to hope for the best. they sing their song & it goes great--even better when they look into the audience & see ana's brother standing there on a crutch, released from ellis island. he won't have to go back to russia & fight in the czar's army after all! yay! less

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