Stitching A Life

Stitching A Life: An Immigration Story by Mary Helen Fein. CA: She Writes Press, 2020. 304 pages. ****  (YA, grades 7-9)

Based on the true story of the Grandmother of the author, Helen Breakstone Fein. Helen was born (Hinde) in a small village in Lithuania to a poor Jewish family with no prospects for improvement or education. Her brother was in danger of being drafted into the Russian army at the age of twelve, so her father devises a plan for his family to go to America. Chaim Breakstone immigrates first and sends money for sixteen-year-old Helen to join him. She arrives at Ellis Island, meets her father and moves into her Aunt Rose's apartment on the Lower East Side of New York. Rose helps Helen find a job in the thriving garment industry and she and her father devote themselves to bringing the rest of the family to join them in the New World. Helen and her family build a new life and settle in New York.

A young adult inspirational story of resilience against all odds, family, friendship and love. Combining fact with fiction Fein tells the brave story of her grandmother traveling by ship to America by herself and the sacrifices she and her Father make to have the rest of the family join them.

I received an ecopy for a review.

Mary Helen Fein was born in New York City in 1943. She attended schools in New York and began writing at the age of twelve when her mother died. Writing has ever since been an important part of her life,  a way to understand and process life's events. Today she lives in Northern California, where she owns her own website design company, writes, paints, and teaches Insight Meditation. In 2014, she published her first novel, Loss of Deliverance -- the story of a young woman's adventures in the drug trade during the 1960s. For more information --www.maryhelenfein.com

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