Hello, America - Hardcover

Livia Bitton-Jackson, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a PhD in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust, which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

Grade 7 Up–This is the final title in the Czech-born author's autobiographical trilogy describing her teen years before, during, and after the Holocaust [I Have Lived a Thousand Years(1997) and My Bridges of Hope (1999, both S & S)]. In 1951, Elli and her mother sailed off to New York. Still shaken from their harrowing experiences during the war and the loss of her father, the 18-year-old was fragile, innocent, yet hopeful as she stepped onto American soil. She was determined to finish her education and become a teacher, fulfilling her father's dreams. Readers get a detailed account of the many challenges she faced. First impressions of assimilated relatives, a supermarket, Brooklyn College, and tuna fish and milkshakes capture her awe and excitement. There is also disillusionment when the greenhorns leave their full shopping cart outside unattended only to find it stolen, or when Elli gets labeled a tease at summer camp for misinterpreting sexual advances. Still, humor and romance softened a tragic past. The writing is at times melodramatic, and, while this engaging memoir reads like a novel, certain characters or events seem random–as in real life. Nonetheless, this is a satisfying portrait of coming-of-age in 1950s Brooklyn.–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools