Los Blue Angels (The Blue Angels) Book

I like that Rebecca is a flawed character (I don't however think she is a "sniveling, selfish, thoughtless, heartless brat" as one reader suggests) who grows during the course of the story as she learns to consider her cousin Ana's feelings and not just her own. Yes the treatment is a little heavy handed, but none of the American Girl series are great literature, but a resource for teaching aspects of American history as seen through the eyes of girls who might have lived at that time, in order to make it more accessible to today's students. One quibble: Rebecca's family seems to be a little better off than most immigrant families, and while Ana's family is not as well off, not much is made of that, and we don't know much of what hardships they may have faced. In the previous book, it is hinted when Ana finds out her family will have to move to an apartment on Orchard Street, but nothing is made of it in this book. I'd like to see more of a range of living conditions. As usual, there is a helpful author's note at the end which gives more information about immigrant schools in the early twentieth century. Readers who live in or visit New York City might also be interested in visiting the Lower East Side Tenement House, at 103 Orchard Street, a retrofitted brownstone which shows the living quarters of several different tenement families. Maybe it is where Ana lived! Lexile measure 730.