Chil­dren’s

Hannah’s Way

Lin­da Glaser; Adam Gus­tavson, illus.
  • Review
By – April 24, 2012

After Hannah’s father los­es his job dur­ing the Depres­sion, the fam­i­ly moves to a rur­al town in north­ern Min­neso­ta where he will work in his brother’s gen­er­al store. Han­nah is not only the new girl in her class; she’s also the only Jew­ish child in the whole school. When the teacher announces the date of the class pic­nic and offers to arrange car­pools, Han­nah des­per­ate­ly wants to go. But the pic­nic is on a Sat­ur­day and her fam­i­ly is Ortho­dox. Why can’t I ride in a car? It’s not dri­ving. It’s just sit­ting” she begs her par­ents. Han­nah final­ly tells her teacher she can’t ride on a Sat­ur­day, but says she can walk with some­one. To Hannah’s sur­prise, when the teacher asks who would like to walk with her, every sin­gle hand in the class is raised. Adam Gustavson’s paint­ings accu­rate­ly reflect the peri­od, and an author’s note explains that the sto­ry was inspired by a true episode. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 5 – 9.

Read­ing Guide

Susan Kan­tor was a senior writer/​editor for Girl Scouts of the USA, a chil­dren’s book edi­tor, and a past judge for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards in the illus­trat­ed children’s book cat­e­go­ry. She is a writer and a docent at the Rubin Muse­um in New York City, where she leads pub­lic and pri­vate tours.

Discussion Questions