Immigrant Kids

Immigrant Kids       Russell Freedman        Puffin Books        First published in 1980

Edition under review 1995

The iconic photos of Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine helped catalyze and motivate change and reform in several areas of American life. Their powerful images created a sense of urgency that could not be conjured up by the printed word alone.

Though time has passed, and many things have changed, these images still retain their impact. Paired with the fact that kids today are remarkably visually sophisticated, and you have tremendous potential for using these photos in a classroom setting.

I like using this book as a way to teach kids how analyze photos in order to glean information from the details that they notice. It is simply amazing to see what information they are able to discern regarding the content and context of a photograph. Typically, the students are able to pull out far more information than they thought they knew about the topic. In a sense, they are teaching themselves about the topic in real time. A simple question about the condition of a child laborer’s shoes may reveal volumes about his or her life and circumstances. Analyzing a few Jacob Riis tenement photos for the details that they reveal can provide the equivalent of a sheaf of printed pages on the topic.

If you project the photos onto a screen, and the students are able to utilize the synergy of each other’s ideas and excitement as they work together.

Though Riis and Hine are heavily featured, this book boasts photos from a variety of photographers, many of whom were unknown.

The photos in the book emphasize the following.

The conditions of passage

Conditions at Ellis Island

Tenement life

Condition of neighborhoods and schools

Child labor

The accompanying text gives content, context, and incorporates accounts from immigrants.

Though this book gets a very high recommendation from me, it is absolutely necessary to be aware of how limited it is in scope. It only treats immigrants who resided in New York City during a certain time period. By no means should it be viewed as comprehensive, or that one should consider the topic to be covered if this is the sole source.

This weakness is also a source of strength. What this book does, it does well. Putting that information in a greater context provides myriad opportunities for fantastic student work.

One can juxtapose the experiences of the immigrants in the book with those from different times and/or places. For instance, one can compare the experiences of the immigrants in this book to those who came through Angel Island, or to immigrant kids in the Mission today.

Another good idea for this book is to have students write about their own lives and compare and contrast their experiences and circumstances with the kids in the book.