History Comics: Ellis Island: Immigration and the American Dream

Gr 6-10–Reflecting on the history of immigration in the United States, this story within a story features a family enduring Hurricane Sandy with neighbors where the mother, who works as a park ranger on Ellis Island, tells the story of its creation and function. She includes a range of tangential stories of the Statue of Liberty, the court case to determine whether New York or New Jersey could claim it as their own, and the story of the characters’ Irish immigrant past. The contemporary framing helps explain history without being too much of a distraction. The new generation has questions about the past and she’s willing to share what she knows, including multiple rebuilds and expansions after growing over time to include a reception room, hospitals, and dormitories. Explanations about immigrant treatment are shared with the same care for detail that also explain the forced migration of Africans and the removal of Native Americans from their territories. However, there is one misstep in using a stork carrying babies to reference overpopulation as one of the reasons why people would leave their country. Otherwise, Feggo covers a lot of ground in a short comic perfect for young readers.