Immigration Reflection

During the past few months we have been focusing on immigration, by incorporating that into 3 different projects. We read a novel, we wrote and drew about our feelings of the book and we found an immigrant and interviewed them, while learning all about their life and their experience.

The first thing that we did in this project was to read a novel about immigration. I read the book, Hello, America by Livia Bitten-Jackson, and it’s about a girl and her mom moving to America from being in Concentration Camps. They have to face all of the struggles in America and learn how different everything is on different sides of the world. I am very happy that I chose, and read this book because I think that it is very interesting and I feel that after reading this book I know more about immigrants and what they had to face when coming to America.
One major thing that I learned was how immigrants had to go through life as someone in the new word. They aren’t treated the same as other people and they feel as if they are smaller then anyone else. They have to learn everything the hard way if they want to fit in and they are more protective then others in America. From the process of actually reading the book to writing about it, I felt that it went very smoothly and that I wouldn’t take out or add anything to the process. As for writing by hand and by typing on our blogs, I think that I like writing on our blogs better. When we wrote on our blogs I felt that I was writing better then on hand. It makes me want to try harder and when you are reading the persons blog and commenting on it you really have to understand it.

The blogging experience was good at some points and bad at others. It was good because we really got to reflect for what we felt about the book. It was bad because some of the people that we were in a group with didn’t post their blogs and then you would be reflecting on the same persons blog most of the time. When the members in my group answered the questions and responded on what I wrote I really felt that they knew what I was talking about and I feel the same when I was responding to what they were writing.

Another part of this project was painting a picture of what we thought the book was all about and write about the artwork. We had many different things that we could paint from, and I chose to do a new book cover for the book because the book cover is kind of boring and I think that it needed to reflect over the book a little bit more. After I drew my final product, I really did feel that it reflected what the book was all about. I drew a picture of a cattle car on the top in the desert and on the bottom a subway train in New York. It shows what the main character has gone through all throughout her life and that just because your life got a bad start doesn’t mean that it will have a bad ending.

I loved the way my final turned out painted, but I think that I could have been better by me using a smaller brush and being more detailed. That was hard though because we were using paints and the canvas was very small. From drawing a picture to actually writing about immigration, I feel that I have learned a verity of different things. I have learned that you can learn more from incorporating it into artwork and if you write out everything that you have learned, you will know the amount that you have gained from this project.

Another way that we got to learn more about immigration was from actually meeting and learning all about an immigrant and their journey to America. For me my interview went very well because she likes to talk and is very familiar, talking about that point in her life. The interview was great and went very smoothly, and in the end I got all of the questions answered that I needed and even more. I liked this process, and I liked how we would do three different interviews, three different ways. Each interview we would cover something different, and if we forgot something to ask in the first interview then we would ask it in the second or third. One specific thing that I learned from the first interview was about her immigration to America, and little things about herself. In the second interview I learned about her family and more of her experience in America. In the in person interview I learned all about, her trip here, what she saw and expected, but mostly what her home country was like. After these interviews I feel that I know most of her life.

As you can see I have learned a lot from this project, I didn’t just learn about immigration, I learned all about immigrants and their lives, I learned interviewing skills, and I learned how to express my feelings towards a book by simply drawing a picture.

Book Review

Hello America
Madeline M.

I read the book hello America, written by, Bitton-Jackson, written in Elli’s perspective. This novel is about a daughter, Elli, and her mom. They are both holocaust survivors and the story is basically about their lives in America. This is a very detailed and descriptive book and I would suggest reading this book, Hello America.

This book shows the different struggles that they faced in America and it also shows the different ways that they acted in their old country compared to America. In the beginning of the book they have help living in America from their aunts and uncles, and other family members that have already made the transition to America. Elli has to learn the different things that she can and can’t do in America that she did do in her home country and before the Holocaust. Elli learns most things the hard way and her whole life has been very many speed bumps and in the end she gets to a flat road.

Elli has a great personality and she I very bright and caring to other people. When people walk the streets and someone falls or is lost nobody would care but Elli would stop and help. It took her a very long time to figure out how American’s acted because when her mom and Elli went shopping they left their cart outside. Someone took it and they were very disappointed but they had to learn from that. Something else that also helped was that she spoke various languages and that was great help to under stand almost all people she confronted with.

Some of the speed bumps that she faced helped them and made their lives move forward and it made it better. If she didn’t quit from her bagging job she wouldn’t of ever met her friends and she also wouldn’t of gotten a teaching job of her dreams. This book contains many sad or depressing things but it also after every bad thing that happens it ends up good.

I do suggest this book for most people over the age of 12 because some of the content is for older people then young people. This was a very good novel and I did enjoy most of it, but some parts of the book were very boring and just showed their basic life. I also liked this book because it showed what immigrants had to go through when they were in America for the first times in their life and they also started their whole life over which is a very hard thing to do. All in all you can see that Hello America is a very good book.

Hello America, Quotes #6

Quote #1: Pg 212, said by Miriam to Elli,

“The sooner you accept the world as it is the sooner you’ll be a part of it…”

Miriam brought up a great point and I do think that Elli needs to forget her old country and just accept America how it is. Elli has lived by old rules and is getting introduced to new things still. It will be hard for her to forget her old country and the things that happened before, but she just has to, in order to be successful. In the end I do think that she will get a hang of it and be normal like regular Americans.

Miriam is probably the best royal friend to Elli and the one who is telling her things and not keeping secrets from her. She is nice, sweet and loyal to Elli and that is why she is friends with her. I do think that Elli does look up to her and feel that she wants to know everything that Miriam knows.

Question #1: Do you like the character Miriam? Why?



Quote #2: Pg 230, thought by Elli,

“I want you to be proud of me Papa!”

Elli has lived her life in America based on what her Papa thinks and he died. She needs to stop referring to him because he is dead and he can’t help her or talk to her anymore. Elli has gotten to the point where she needs to realize that he is gone forever and that she will never be with him again. It is very sad but she had to realize that sometime or another.

I think that Elli needs to grow up because she is becoming an adult. I know that it was hard to lose a dad but sooner or later she needs to grow up and get in detail with reality. I do know that she hasn’t seen him in at least a year and she needs to finally let him go.

Question #2: If you had to predict what Elli was going to do next, what would she do?

Hello America, Quotes #5

Quote #1: Pg 176, said by Elli’s mom,

“Amen!” Mother says, rising up her glass, her voce thick with emotion, “To a new life in America!”


This is a brand new start for Elli and her mom and they are taking baby steps into the new world. There life is getting better and better, but at the same time having struggles on the way. Most of the struggles that they over came led to great things for them. They are making a toast to their new apartment in America and are really starting their lives over. They must feel so proud of them selves; even if they get knocked down they always find a way to get back up.

This is a great new life for Elli, great opportunities then before and she feels like a person that others care about. Elli was given another chance in life, because she almost died in the camps but was given another chance and is living a normal life. I am really glad she got a second chance at life.

Question #1:

What were the main struggles that Elli has had to face so far in the book?



Quote #2: Pg 188, thought by Elli,


“It takes a long time to fall asleep as I anticipate the summer, the camp with the other young people, with children, the mountains and to top it all, my mother and my aunts visit.”

When Elli first heard the word “camp” she immediately thought of the death camps and the concentration camps she was put in. Elli didn’t know what one was so she is experiencing her first summer camp ever as a child and as a person who works the camp all at the same time. Pretty much all customs that were in Ellis home country are different here and that is what she has to adapt to. Elli also figures out that almost all kids go to summer camps and that isn’t what they do where she came from.

Elli needs to experience the new world and that is why her and her mom have traveled here. They will have good and bad times in America but I think that in the end everything will work out just fine for Elli.

Question #2:

If you were Elli how would you feel going to a summer camp for 2 months without ever going to one before?

Hello America, Quotes #4

Quote #1: Pg 124, thought by Elli

“As I make my way to the entrance of the house and climb the front stairs, and involuntary shiver runs through my body.”



Elli doesn’t know how most things work in America and in her home country, it was safer and she would get rides from strangers. Her life has to completely start over almost every thing she did in her hometown starts over now. It wouldn’t be safe, and Elli has had to learn tones of lessons the hard way, by doing it first. She has learned a lot in America and she still will have to learn and forget some of her home country habits.

Elli is a very smart girl and she is in America but she is living in her home country. I think that she is doing a great job so far in America but she has to learn almost everything the hard way, by doing it wrong first. Elli has a lot to learn but I think that in the end Elli will be very successful in America.


Question #1: If you were Elli and you didn’t know any better would you of gotten into the car?



Quote #2: Pg 134, thought by Elli


“Am I capable of ending the fairy tale… bursting my bubble of bliss?

Elli is getting a new start, a new beginning, from coming here and Alex wasn’t letting her be free or letting her do what she wanted to do. She needs to be on her own, to get a job that she would either like or enjoy, and a doctor isn’t what she wanted to do. Her family also likes that she isn’t hugging on to Alex any more and Elli can pay more attention on her family and her jobs.

I have been perfectly happy before and then have to ruin it because something else go in the way of it. I didn’t have to give up a person and it wasn’t something that big but it was still important to me. Have you ever had to give up something you love?

Question #2: If you were Elli, would you take the dream you have wanted since a kid of becoming a teacher or be an assistant to Alex?