Clubbhouse Happenings: Bessie’s Pillow By Linda Bress Silbert~A Review Crew Review

Presents...

     Strong Learning, Inc. has published the book, Bessie’s Pillow. Based on the true story of Bessie Dreizen, (Boshka Marksman) a Lithuanian immigrant to the United States, this story is beautifully written. While reading the story I was pulled in to the story. This story captures Bessie’s moments..as she embarks on a new life here in America. We experience her hesitations of leaving home, the place she knew well and lived with her family, her anxieties of starting over here in the unknown land of America, where things are different~including the language and her name!~ALONE! The story starts with her leaving Lithuania where Jews are persecuted. She travels here with the hops of earning enough money to bring her family here, mainly here brothers to escape the enlistment they would soon face into the Russian army. As we followed with Bessie, she encounters or overcomes, language barriers and the differences from one place to another.   She explains, for example how the police in America are very different than the police back home. We laughed and cried (okay I cried the kids not so much) as people died from common things today that we have cures from. This is something that is hard to swallow and taken for granted. One of the hardest things for my kids to understand was that people died back then from things that today we have cures for! Something we take for granted, the advanced in medical treatments since then.
     Bessie’s Pillow is a double love story. The Parents Love: The love the parents had for their child that they wanted her to have a better life, so at 18 they “pushed” her to go to a different country for a better life and future. This story is so true for so many families. Then you have Bessie’s love story how she met and married her husband, this is where the pillow comes in. I won’t explain exactly how at this point. You have to read the book! However, the pillow provides great comfort, and connections.
The book encompassed her daily ups and downs, as she built her life here and became a successful American. Of course it wasn’t easy at all. She did have an older sister and some family friends that she stayed with when she first came. However seeking them out in a new land wasn’t easy. Finding her first job here again wasn’t easy. Times were not as easy as we know them to be today.
           I started off reading the story to my kids. I wasn’t sure how they would like it. I read it in the evening as part of the bedtime ritual. The next day I hear..“Mom, at lunch break will you read some more of the pillow story?”, and again at bedtime "Are we going to read more of that book?" They loved it as much as I did! This book is a great read alone for an older child (I would say 8th or 9th and up) or with you family (this way you can talk about some of the experiences that are brought up in the book). I want to point out though that this is a real account of what happened and how immigrants were treated. There are some parts that you may feel are not suitable for your younger child. My daughter is 11 and the youngest to listen as I read this story.    I suggest you reading the book first, if reading to elementary school kids.
     Along with this book, when using this with middle and high schoolers, there are additional resources to help enhance the lesson. I suggest you check out Bessie's America! Here you can find links to radio shows that were listened to during this time period, recipes and photographs to help you really see and understand this time period. Finally there is a study guide that you can use. With all the resources that come with this book, it could easily be used as a unit study!

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Bessie’s Pillow is the first novel written Linda Bress Silbert.

You can check out what my crew friends are saying about this book as well: