The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb

Published February 8, 2022

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Heather Webb’s The Next Ship Home is set in 1902, at Ellis Island, known as The Island of Tears. The novel chronicles the awakening of two young women, Francesca Ricci, desperately escaping her father, arriving by ship from Sicily and Alma Brauer, living with her family of seven in a tenement in New York City’s “Little Germany.” The Brauers run a successful bierhaus despite narrow views. Alma is intelligent but despised and bullied by her stepfather. Her respite from servitude and her parents’ beliefs and mores is her penchant and adeptness for learning other languages. Alma’s domineering stepfather secures a job for her at Ellis Island without her knowledge. As a twenty-two-year-old spinster dependent on her parents, Alma feeling she has no choice, boards the ferry to the island.

Through fear and profound despair Francesca and Alma’s paths cross and a deep friendship is formed. Becoming like sisters they find determination and motivate each other to endure circumstances beyond their control and the courage to make choices when it seems there’s not one.  Heather Webb creates doubt and suspense through characters’ dialogue involving anarchism, labor disputes, and strikes. Rumors of lies and deceit by Ellis Island staff and despicable behavior by inspectors, and even Alma’s own family members, keep readers in disbelief and absolutely spellbound. Her sensitive and visual descriptions of neighborhoods and characters add to the anxious feelings when viewed through an immigrant’s eyes. The prospects for Francesca and Alma seem bleak and unsurmountable but as Francesca says, “Anything worth doing or having is a little frightening… or very frightening!”

Readers will follow these young women from the ferry, aboard the trains, on long walks up Park Avenue and even to a riot, but all will survive and celebrate The Next Ship Home as Francesca and Alma embark on America’s shores of optimism.

(At Ellis Island by Louise Peacock is one I used in my classroom with third graders. It’s an excellent example of using trade books to teach history and social studies. It appeals to all ages.)