Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants

This optimistic picture book biography of Lithuanian newspaperman Abraham Cahan (1860–1951) begins with the Yiddish-speaking figure being educated “in the traditional Jewish way, studying Hebrew and the Bible.” As he matured and became a teacher, he also got into politics, advocating for mistreated workers oppressed by Czarist rule. Facing retaliation, he joined the “nearly two million other Jews who arrived in the United States from Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1914,” Finkelstein writes. A factory worker by day, he studied English at night, and reported on the experiences of Jewish immigrants. In 1897, he cofounded Yiddish-language newspaper Forverts, which connected readers with news local and global, and provided practical advice about U.S. life (e.g., explaining baseball to readers). Depicting gentle-faced characters with various skin tones, Stamper’s gouache illustrations portray bustling social scenes in this story of community-based success. End notes conclude. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)