My Name Is America: The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant

My 8 year old daughter and I read this aloud to one another for a Social Studies homeschool lesson, and I have to say that this book stands far above others in the historical fiction journals for children genre. William Durban, a resident of Hibbing, Minnesota, the setting of the book, crafted the story with such care that I do not doubt this book was several years in the making. I was unable to determine if the narrator, Otto Peltonen, was a real life person because unlike other books in the genre where the main character is supposed to represent "everyman" and hit on all of the politically correct multicultural themes, Otto and his family are quite believable. According to the acknowledgements page, Durban conducted a great deal of interviews with Finns living locally as well as back in Otto's hometown in Finnland, and these undoubtedly lend the story some of its authenticity. Labor and the immigrant experience are the major themes. I appreciated how Durban carefully drew his characters such that none of them appeared to be literary archetypes, just real Americans. There were no heroes or villains, per se. I picked up this volume by virtue of it being one of the few fiction titles for young readers dealing with the Finnish experience, but beyond simply being in a different location (Minnesota) and having different ethnic players, this book seems to me to be far superior to other stories dealing with labor history of miners in Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Socialism is given not only fair treatment but one thing I appreciated was how the author doesn't really use the book as quite the soap box he could have, keeping the story tied to Hibbing and the unionism as it happened there without leaving out details about a few local radical eccentrics and smaller socialist attempts to organize, for example, a cooperative grocery store. Vocabulary that is introduced are concepts like "replacement workers," contracts, wages, wildcat strikes, pickets, and opportunities to discuss the mining technology of the era present themselves throughout the book. Opportunities to launch other units on American history or economics or politics on U.S. Steel or Andrew Carnegie are presented, as well as ties to literature classics, including works by Mark Twain, Jack London, and O. Henry.

I grew up in Hibbing and this story bought back memories of living their. All of the comunities around Hibbing I had been to and know where they are or were located. I also worked in the mines and am now retired from their. So much of the conditions in mining is true. I also went to Junior High School in North Hibbing. You can see some of the foundition of some of the building where North Hibbing use to be. The High School is very beautiful.

Otto Peltonen and his family leave all their relatives in Finland hoping to find a better life and to join his father. Otto dreams America will be great but when he reaches to the town he finds America is not at all great. At first Otto goes to school but soon finds that his family needs him to work in the coal mines to help them survive. Otto finds work hard in the dusty coal mines and the working conditions are horrible. What Otto can't understand is why some miners are much richer than his family. When Otto learns the truth he was sorry he ever asked. However even with the bad working conditions Otto and his family dream one day they will save up enough money so they will have their own farm like in Finland. This is a great accound by William Durbin on the harships of coal workers live. I highly recommend reading it!

This book tells the story of a 16-year-old Finnish Immigrant named Otto Peltenon. Otto worked in the iron mines of Hibbing,Minnesota when he was a teenager,and his life in the mine was dangerous and frustrating. If you lke to read Dear America books, diary, or historical fictionbooks about what life was like working in the mines and many people dying from explosions every day, I would recommend reading The Journal of Otto Peltenon, by William Durbin.

In 1905 Otto Peltonen, his two younger sisters, and their mother leave their home in Finland and travel to Hibbing, Minnesotta, to join their father, an iron miner there. Although Otto attends school at first, he soon has to go to work in the mines to help provide for his family, living in a tiny shack in the mining town. Although their conditions are miserable and men die daily, Otto and his father work toward the day when they will have saved enough money to buy a farm of their own. The story is told through Otto's journal entries over two and a half years, as he describes everything that happens to him. I highly reccomend this book to historical fiction fans who enjoyed the previous books in this series.