Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration

 Bausum, Ann. Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration. National Geographic, 2009. 112pp. Lexile 1170.

Bausum takes a look at past U.S. immigration policies focusing on five groups chronologically from 1882, when the U.S. first started keeping specific groups from immigrating, to recent issues about illegal Mexican immigrants.  Sections examine Chinese immigrants in the 1800s; Jewish refugees during the 1930s and 40s; and the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the U.S. during World War II.  While the author does not advocate limitless immigration, she raises questions about biases and fairness in government policies.  She weaves quotations from those involved into the text; black-and-white photographs also add information.  Back matter includes an extensive timeline; bibliography; resource guide; and index.

Speaking Std. #2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.  Timelines are a useful graphic tool in understanding the chronology of a historical topic.  The six-page timeline in this book is unusually extensive and attractive, incorporating small photographs and short paragraphs of text.  Have students use it as a model in conjunction with a different historical text that follows a chronological structure; then have them explain the historical event, using the timeline, to fellow students.  Several free websites such as www.xtimeline.com offer digital timeline templates that can include images and different structures. 

Fiction Tie-ins:  Considering pairing with Cynthia Kadohata's Weedflower, about a Japanese-American family at an internment camp, or Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle, a verse novel about Jewish refugees in Cuba in 1939.

Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924

Hopkinson, Deborah. Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924. Orchard, 2003. 144pp. Lexile 990.

When 16-year-old Marcus Ravage left Romania in 1900 to move alone to the U.S., he couldn’t understand his mother’s despair at his departure.  Later he did understand, as he never saw her again.  Ravage is one of five young people who add a personal voice to this excellent, very readable account of life in Manhattan’s tenements in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Instead of a chronological structure, the chapters look at different aspects of immigrant life, with an emphasis on young people.  It starts with their journeys here and what the newcomers, mostly Jews and Italians, thought of their new homes and overcrowded living quarters.  It goes on to look at work, life in the busy streets, learning English, and education, with effective quotes from the five teenagers, all of whom wrote about their experiences.  Short sections near the end tell about their later lives.  Sepia-tinted period photographs, many by Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis, enrich the text.  Back matter includes a time line, bibliography, notes, and index. 

Reading Std #4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including technical, connotative, and figurative meanings; analyze role of specific word choices.  In chapters on work, housing, and education, Hopkinson discusses efforts to improve tenements, reform child labor, and require education.  In doing so she uses terms important to government and trying to change government.  Have students find and analyze terms such as “regulations,” “codes,” “implementation,” and “enforcement.” Have them also consider language about trying to change conditions such as “boycott,” “strike,” “rent strike,” and “work stoppage.”