Letters From Rifka Book Pdf

[Lynne Pruskowski]

BillieJo has a great deal to forgive: Her father for causing the accident that killed her mother; her mother for leaving when Billie Jo needed her most; and herself for being the cause of her own sorrow. Daddy's too wrung out to help her, and there's no one else to care. So at 14, Billie Jo must heal herself - even if it means tearing up her roots and leaving behind everything she's ever known.

In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother's decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother's fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother's racial lineage, tracing her family back to 18th-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage.

Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching.

In January 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order stopping entry to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries and dramatically cutting the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States each year. The American people spoke up, with protests, marches, donations, and lawsuits that quickly overturned the order. But the refugee caps remained. In The Displaced, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, himself a refugee, brings together a host of prominent refugee writers to explore and illuminate the refugee experience.

Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams that in the new country she will at last be safe from the Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In it, she records her observations and experiences in the form of letters to Tovah, the beloved cousin she has left behind.

Strong-hearted and determined, Rifka must endure a great deal: humiliating examinations by doctors and soldiers, deadly typhus, separation from all she has ever known and loved, murderous storms at sea, detainment on Ellis Island - and is if this is not enough, the loss of her glorious golden hair.

The Gulag was a monstrous network of labor camps that held and killed millions of prisoners from the 1930s to the 1950s. More than half a century after the end of Stalinist terror, the geography of the Gulag has been barely sketched and the number of its victims remains unknown. Has the Gulag been forgotten? Writer Masha Gessen and photographer Misha Friedman set out across Russia in search of the memory of the Gulag.

Letters from Rifka is a historical fiction novel about a family who is leaving Russia and trying to get to America. Rifka is the youngest member of the immigrant family. She is diagnosed with ringworm and forced to separate from her family until she is healthy. Even though this book is written in the present tense, at the end of each chapter, Rifka signs it as a letter to her cousin Tovah. Rifka admires and looks up to Tovah, who is still in Russia. She is writing these letters in old Russian books, but plans to figure out how to send them to Tovah when she gets to America.I found this book difficult to get into at first, but once I reached around page 20, the action and events started to pick up. I enjoyed how Rifka was so impressed by new ideas such as chocolate and ice cream. I also liked how she used her mother's locket as a way of being connected to her. In general, this is an interesting book about how one girl can be so brave. Hang in there for those first 20 pages, because after that, I'm sure it will catch your attention!

last year i had to read this book for school. i don't remember it so much, but i remember liking it. i remember sorta (hehe) judging it by its cover and blurb, so i was like saying to my friends, "this book must be so boring. its just about a girl who writes letters to her cousin" my friends thought the same thing. when we started reading it, then we all really liked it and from now on, none of us will judge a book by its cover or blurb again. great book!

In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others immigrate to America.

In letters to her cousin in Russia, 12-year-old Rifka tells of her journey in 1919 to America, from the dangerous escape over the border to the journey through Europe and across the sea to the new country.

ZGE5

#1 Simile - "my body hurt as if the train had run over me." pg. 21

hyperbole - " each time he placed a cloth over my eyes I felt the weight of it crushing my head to the floor." pg 22

flashback - "remember how in Berdichev the Russian guards would come to inspect the homes of the Jews?" pg 31

#2 First your legs and head start aching. You get really tired.

#3 She wrote this because Tovah's family was wealthier so the Russians gave them more respect. Places can be different for different people because in some places people look at others based on different things. Like in Russia, wealthiness mattered, and if you were Jewish.

4

Rifka's feelings change about Saul because Saul was being helpful and taking care of Rifka like how Saul went out every day and returned with food for each of them. Also Saul gave Rifka a bigger share of food than he got even though he is older and needs more food.

1.One of the author crafts that Karen Hesse uses is on page 22. She used a metaphor by saying " I felt imprisoned under a mound of stones." Another author craft that Karen Hesse used is on page 31. She used a simile by saying "Saul is as big as a horse." The last author craft Karen Hesse uses is on page 32. She uses a simile by saying "I looked as short and round as a barrel.

2. Some of the symptoms of typhus are you are too weak to speak. An example of that is Rifka wanting to correct her doctor and say it was the polish doctor who gave her typhus but she could not speak. Another symptom of typhus is you cough so hard that it hurts. An example of that is Rifka saying every time she coughed it felt like she would split in two. Another symptom of typhus is having horrible headaches. An example of that is Rifkas father put a cloth on Rifkas head but it felt very heavy on her head so she tryed to take it off.

3. Russia isn't as bad for Tovahs family because they are not Jews like Rifkas family. It matters if you are a Jew or not in Russia because they treat you differently if you were a jew.

4. Her feelings changed about Saul because Saul used to pull her hair, punch her, and do tons of mean things. Just when Rifkas parents were in the hospital Saul started getting food for his family and equally split the food for them even though he ate more than the rest of them. He also held water to Rifkas lips to help her drink it because Rifka was to weak to.

JS#23

1. On page twenty-two it says "Each time he placed the cloth over my eyes,I felt the weight of it crushing my head to the floor.", this is an example of a hyperbole, because a damp cloth cannot really crush her head. On page twenty-eight it says "Always, when I see her passing by my room, she is chewing , her red cheeks swollen like a squirrel with a nut." that is a simile because the girl is not a squirrel but, she is comparing her to one, using the word "like". One more example of author craft in this book is on page twenty-two it says "Saul says a student", this is an example of alliteration because, there are three words next to each other that all start with the same letter.

2. Some of the symptoms of typhus are a cough, a rash, and not being able to move.

3. Rifka writes that Russia was not as bad for Tovah's family because, on page twenty it says "Russia has not been so bad for you. With money, Russia can be very good, even for a Jew.".

4. I do not think Rifka's feelings about Saul changed very much but, he did care for her when she is sick. On pages twenty-four and twenty-five Rifka describes how he holds a cup of water to her lips so she can drink and held her hands down to keep her from hurting herself.

C.M.L #11

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