Sonderbooks Book Review of How I Became an American

Reviewed July 18, 2002.
Cricket Books, 2001. 120 pages.
Winner of the Batchelder Award for the best translated children’s book of the year.

This is the story of an immigrant, Johnny Bonfert, from the Siebenburgen region of Austria-Hungary, as he travels to America with his family at the turn of the century.

This book is good and well-written, but I’ve read many similar stories before, and there wasn’t really anything to make this one stand out. Still, a child who has never read a book about what it was like for immigrants coming to America should like this one. It’s good for younger grades, written in a simple style with short chapters. A good story.

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

**How I Became an American

by Karin Guendisch

Translated from German by James Skofield