The Welcome Chair (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781534429772)

"An eloquent account of the American immigrant experience." --Booklist (starred review)
"Deserves to become a modern classic." --BookPage (starred review)
"A resounding welcome to immigrants." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Based in part on a 100-year-old family journal, Rosemary Wells brings to life a story that the diary's fragile pages tell. It's the story of a wooden rocking chair handmade in about 1825 by her great-great-grandfather, an immigrant Jewish boy who made his way to America from Germany in the early 1800s.

In 1807, Sam Siegbert is born in southern Germany. Sam's favorite pastime is carpentry, much to his father's displeasure. His mother says he has a gift from God in his hands. After moving to America, he builds a wooden chair with the word WILLKOMMEN on the back. The chair's back panel was later marked with welcomes by four generations of the family in four different languages.

After the family lost track of the old chair, the author created a new life for it among new owners from other corners of the world. All the families who loved the chair came to America, escaping religious conformity, natural disasters, tyrannies, war, and superstition. In its lifetime, the rocking chair, with its earliest word WILLKOMMEN, stood for openness, hospitality, and acceptance to all who owned it or rocked safely in its embrace.

Author: Rosemary Wells
ISBN-10: 1534429778
ISBN-13: 9781534429772
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Language: English
Published: 11/02/2021
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 11.00h x 9.90w x 0.50d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.4
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 514960 / Welcome Chair


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2021
Publishers Weekly 08/02/2021
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2021
Booklist 09/01/2021 pg. 84
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2022 pg. 102
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2022 - Superior,Well Above Average