{"id":4809,"date":"2019-02-03T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T06:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2019-02-02T13:14:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T19:14:49","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-624-featuring-amy-june-bates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4809","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #624: Featuring Amy June Bates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“One morning, there was a big commotion on the boat. Gittel scrambled up on deck
to see what all the excitement was about. ‘Look, look.’ Everyone pointed
in the same direction as a great cheer arose. ‘There she is.'”<\/em>
(Click image to see spread in its entirety and to read the full text)<\/center>
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\nLet’s take a look today at Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Abrams, February 2019), written by the prolific author Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/a><\/strong> and illustrated by Amy June Bates<\/a><\/strong>. It’s the story of a young Jewish girl who plans to emigrate to America with her mother, yet has to take the trip across the ocean alone. It’s based on two true stories from the author’s own family \u2014 a story from her grandmother’s childhood, in which she (her Grandma Ruthie) emigrated in 1900 from what she called the “Old Country” to America, as well as a story from a childhood friend of the author’s mother. <\/p>\n

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Gittel is reluctant to leave the home she loves, and the night before their journey she and her mother “gather in the Sabbath light,” sing a blessing, and dine together. The next day, as the girl and her mother attempt to board the ship to America, a nightmare unfolds for Gittel: a health inspector tells her mother she cannot board, due to an eye infection. Gittel’s mother implores her daughter to take the trip alone: “Home is not safe for us. You are going to America to have a better life.” She promises to join her daughter as soon as she can, and Gittel boards. “The ship was so big,” Newman writes, “it made Gittel feel very, very small.” <\/p>\n

I won’t spoil the plot for you, but through the kindness of strangers, eventually Gittel and her mother reunite in America. The closing author’s note sheds more light on the true stories behind Gittel’s, as well as gives some historical context behind the plight of immigrants coming to America through Ellis Island between the end of the 19th century and the early to mid-20th century. <\/p>\n

Newman tells this immigration story with tenderness and an eloquent lyricism. Bates’s lovingly-detailed watercolor illustrations capture well the time period and the inherent drama of Gittel’s journey. The intricate borders on each spread are beautiful. The title page spread alone is so lovely, I requested a copy of that, which you can see below \u2014 along with a few other spreads from the book.
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Title page spread<\/em>
(Click either image to see in its entirety)<\/center>
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“‘No, Gittel,’ Mama replied …. ‘We cannot bring a goat to America.'”<\/em>
(Click image to see spread in its entirety and to read the full text)<\/center>
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“Mama lit the tall, white candles, and she and Gittel circled their hands three times
to gather in the Sabbath light. Together they sang the blessing
and then sat down to eat.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nGITTEL’S JOURNEY: AN ELLIS ISLAND STORY. Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Lesl\u00e9a Newman. Illustrations \u00a9 2019 by Amy June Bates and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Abrams Books for Youjng Readers, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> The awards this week<\/a><\/strong> were exciting. Congrats to all the newly-minted!<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Dinner Friday night with two great friends at a new-to-me restaurant<\/a><\/strong> with EXCELLENT TACOS. (Band name. I call it.) <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Tiny Ruins’s “School of Design.”<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> That feeling when you go to pick up a brand-new book at the library that you put on hold and have waited and waited for and it’s finally ready. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Good advice.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> A Snow Day this week. (Very little snow, but we’ll take what we can get.) <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> A bit belated, but Paul Simon’s new rendition of “Can’t Run But.”<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“One morning, there was a big commotion on the boat. Gittel scrambled up on deckto see what all the excitement was about. ‘Look, look.’ Everyone pointedin the same direction as a great cheer arose. ‘There she is.’”(Click image to see spread in its entirety and to read the full text)   Let’s take a look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}