Parents need to know that Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain constructs a compelling history for young people about San Francisco's immigration station that operated from 1910 to 1940, using photographs, poems, interview excerpts, and more. Readers will especially learn about the prejudice faced by Chinese people, the majority of the immigrants who passed through Angel Island. Author Russell Freedman also provides context, describing the sentiment of the time, including a mob attack in Los Angeles that ended with 17 Chinese people being lynched and two being stabbed to death, and prejudicial laws, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred all but a select group of Chinese immigrants. This book helps young readers understand why it's important to remember even painful and shameful parts of American history. It also celebrates Alexander Weiss, a former state park ranger who helped preserve the poems carved on the walls by immigrants passing through Angel Island. The book describes harsh conditions at immigration centers, including an early detention center where unsanitary conditions caused the deaths of several people, and the suicide of a man at Angel Island, who'd been told he had to return to China.
