Voyage on the Great Titanic

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady by Ellen Emerson White is a part of the Dear America collection for children/young adults. The books are written as though you are reading the main character's diary, and started being published widely after the American Girls series got very popular. I got this one at a book fair in middle school, and I still enjoyed reading it as an adult.

Margaret Ann Brady is an orphaned girl in England who is living in a home and school run by nuns, one of whom has given her a diary, which is where the book essentially begins. Margaret fills the reader in on her back-story - about her parents and her brother, and how she came to be at the orphanage. But she has also been taken on by a wealthy American woman to act as a companion on board the Titanic. While I'm sure we all know the story of that tragic event, I found it interesting to read about from Margaret's perspective, and the historical significance is not made light of although the book is intended for a fairly young audience.

Changes and Conflicts: Korean Immigrant Families in New York

Changes and Conflicts: Korean Immigrant Families in New York by Pyong Gap Min is one of the books I had to read for my Anthropology of Migration class this past semester. It is one of the books in the New Immigrant Series, and while we only had two of the books in the series assigned for class, I would definitely pick up any others I might come across, because they were both great books.

Changes and Conflicts focuses on the experience of immigrants from Korea to New York, and also discusses the experience of many second-generation immigrants (the American-born children of those people who came from Korea) - however, many of the challenges they face are also experienced by Korean immigrants to other parts of the United States, as well. In fact, it is interesting to note both the similarities and differences between immigrant groups when reading this book, because there are quite a bit of both.