In the New World

January 12, 2015
This portrait of two generations of a family, separated by 150 years, provides a forthright account of the 19th-century German immigrant experience. Subheads break the text into brief blocks as Holtei (Nanuk Flies Home) details the particulars of the Peters family’s 1869 move from their small German farm to the United States, explaining the financial necessity for their relocation, the hardships of the move, and the strains and rewards of their two-month journey to Nebraska. Raidt’s (The Six Swans) crisp pictures, a mix of spot illustrations and dramatic wordless spreads, showcase a diversity of landscapes, from a bustling Hamburg port to the equally busy streets of post–Civil War New Orleans and the sweeping plains where the family builds its farm, thanks to the Homestead Act. A page turn brings readers to the present day, as the Peters’s descendants travel to Germany to explore their roots. While this reverse journey doesn’t get the same weight and attention as the first one, it draws a clear line between past and present that will likely leave children curious about their own family histories. Ages 5–8.