  | Yossel's journey Author: Lasky, Kathryn | |
| Price: $23.28 | ||
Summary:
Yossel, along with his family, flees anti-Jewish Russian pogroms in the late nineteenth century and settles in the American Southwest where he forges a friendship with Thomas, a Native American Navajo boy.
| Illustrator: | Yazzie, Johnson |
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Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (07/15/22)
Booklist (09/15/22)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 09/15/2022 Eight-year-old Yossel’s family flees Russia to resettle in America because “the tsar is sending his soldiers to hurt Jewish people.” After a stop in New York, a freight wagon takes the three into the desert near a Navajo Indian Reservation,” where they inherited a trading post from a late uncle. Yossel learns English and Navajo words from customers and eventually befriends a Navajo boy, Thomas. Shared moments over food and play as well as a sleepover in Thomas’ hogan build to a sense of belonging for Yossel in America. Vibrant acrylic illustrations evoke the grandeur and palette of the American Southwest; the jewel-toned, abstract landscapes are especially stunning. Lasky (The Night Journey; Marven of the Great North Woods) is no stranger to Jewish resettlement stories. An author’s note and references offer the basis for this fictionalization, but an opportunity was lost to parallel Yossel’s experience with the U.S. government’s displacement of Navajos. A gorgeously illustrated, if somewhat rosy, story of a cross-cultural nineteenth-century friendship. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.
