Letters From Rifka Summary

Letters from Rifka
The genre of my book is fiction. The setting begins in a train station on September 2,1919 in Berdichev, Russia where the sun rose above the trees at a train station and Rifka stood outside a boxcar. Rika is the main character and she is a 12 year old jewish girl from Berdichev who is trying to flee with her family to America. The main characters of the story are Rifka, her mother and father and her two brothers Saul and Nathan. Her and her family are trying to escape from the Russian army who is after her father and brothers who refused to enter the Russian army. Escaping is their only chance of surviving and staying together. Rifka also has 3 (besides Nathan and Saul) older brothers Reuben, Asher, and Isaac who she
The sun was always up and bright and the people there were very friendly, in the afternoons she would go out and play with some very pleasant kids. She stayed their for a year for treatment and finally left on a boat to see her family who were staying with her 3 other older brothers. Rifka landed in Ellis Island and was detained in a hospital until her hair grew back, but it didn’t. After a while Rifka was told she was going to have a meet up with Mr.Fargate who would determine whether she’d have to go back or would be allowed in. Rifka got enough courage and spoke her mind and stood up for herself which impressed Mr.Fargate. He went on to stamp the paper and let her in, Rifka then noticed her hair was growing back.

Overall Rifka went through many struggles and problems along the way, but she overcame them. I really enjoyed this book because it showed many shows the struggle people like Rifka have gone through. I also like how determined the main character was and how she believed the intelligence was more important than someone’s looks. I thought that was a very important message and I also liked that no matter how many times Rifka fell she always got back up. Overall I enjoyed this book extremely and would enjoy to read another one like