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Rating: 
Summary: Not that great
Review: First of all, this story is about Mary Driscoll, a 14-year-old from Ireland who immigrates to America because her country is starving due to the potato crop blight, the Irish's main source of food and income. Mary goes to live with her aunt Nora, who has been in America for 6 years already. Mary's older sister, Kate, has been in America for 2 years. Mary starts work in a mill and plans to save enough money for her parents to come to America.
This book was a very quick read, but it didn't seem like much happened at all. It is so short! Also, it seems like something might happen between Mary and this boy she met on the ship named Sean, but they never see each other again after they get off the ship. A few letters are exchanged between Mary and Sean's uncle, Mr. Quinn, but that's it. This book was also not that good because the ending is so abrupt! I didn't even know it was the end until I looked at the next page and was surprised to see that it was the Epilogue. It seems like Mr. Denenberg just stopped writing in the middle of the story. So many more things could have happened. In addition, the Epilogue was horrible. This is a fiction book, so I don't see why the author had to make it so disappointing.
This is not one of the better Dear America books, but I think it would be interesting for nine-year-olds or around that age. I don't recommend buying it, though.
Rating: 
Summary: An Irish girl comes to America seeking a better life.
Review: Fourteen-year-old Mary Driscoll and her family have lived in terrible poverty in the Irish countryside every since the potato famine began several years ago. When Mary is offered a chance to join her aunt and older sister in America, the land of opportunity, she jumps at the chance to seek a better life for herself. But after a long, stormy, and miserable ocean voyage, Mary arrives in America to find that it is nothing like she expected. She takes a job in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she is scorned by most of the American workers and expected to work long hours under terrible, unsafe conditions. There are few bright spots in this account of the life faced by many girls in New England cities during the mid-nineteenth century, and most of what happened to the fictional character of Mary happened to various girls who lived back then and worked in factories and mills. I would reccomend this to readers interested in this particular time period in history, or to those readers who are fans of the Dear America series.
Rating: 
Summary: Intersting
Review: Mary Driscoll leaves her home in Ireland during the time of the great potato famine. Moving to Lowell, Massachusetts, Mary gets work in the mills where she meets and befriends with an American girl and several of her friends who also happen to work at the mill. She faces several challenges being that she is Irish and there are so many other Irish arriving in America.This book was both interesting and educational being that you learn about the Irish potato famine, immigrating to America and working in a mill. You also get to read about the daily life of a girl who lived it, even if she is only a fictional character.
Rating:
Summary: A bonus if you're interested in diaries
Review: Mary Driscoll leaves her home in Ireland during the years of the potato famine to join her aunt and sister in Lowell, Massachusetts. Arriving, she lives with her aunt while working in the mills where she hopes to earn enough money so she could send for her parents who are still back in Ireland. So Far From Home gives a look into what it might have been like for a young Irish girl who comes to American during the famine and works in the mills. It also shows how there were those who were against the Irish and those who did not want to hire them.
Rating:
Summary: So Far from Home
Review: Mary Driscoll Travels to Lowell,Mass., after her home town of Skibbreen County Cork,Ireland is hit with the Famine of 1847 causing many peole to flee thier homeland. She flees to find a new life in America with her Aunt Nora.Aunt Nora always talked about America as if it were a land of gold. When she comes, finds the unexpected,rascim,underpayed, and not all what she had dreamed about.When a sudden blow hits her and affects her family far from home,her parents die, and she has no one left in Ireland.I say if you want to read one of Great Dear America Books, read this one. It tells of happen to the Irish what they faced and how they over came it and found there new home, but never forgeting their past and hoping for a bright futrue.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: So Far From Home is an excellent book. It is about an Irish girl named Mary Driscoll. She travels to America because her family is starving. She has to face many hardships. Mary does met some friends in America, which help her out and make her feel comfortable in her new home. This book is realistic and exciting. It is beautifuly written. The book is also factual. It tells you about the Irish and how some people mistreated them. So Far From Home is a fantastic book and I suggest you read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!!!!
Review: This book is about Mary Driscoll, a girl who livied in Ireland during the Potato Famine. Mary is sent to America to live with her aunt and her sister, Kate. But America wasn't what Mary expected. She never really got a lot of money and there wasn't a lot of food. But to find out if she makes it read this book! You won't want to put it down!!
Rating:
Summary: Real life in 1847
Review: This book is one of the Dear America Series, which is a collection of historical fiction books, written in the form of diaries of young girls living during different periods in American history. This book tells the story of Mary Driscoll, a young Irish girl who comes to America to escape the dreaded Potato Famine. It is Black '47, and Mary sees the death and social damage that the Great Hunger is inflicting on her country. She then experiences emigration to America, with all of its hazards, and gets a job in a pre-safety laws textile mill. This book is not for one wanting happy stories and happy endings. Holding back no punches, it portrays mid-Nineteenth Century life is all of its unvarnished actuality. Containing no sex or unnecessary violence, it is suitable for young readers, the 9-12 category probably being just right. I would recommend it for any reader, young or old, who wants a short, truthful look at life in 1847. By the way, the hardcover binding is of top-notch quality, and the attached bookmarker ribbon makes reading this book a real pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: The Irish Girl
Review: This book is very sound historically.The young Irish girl Mary Driscoll leaves her native land during the Potatoe Famine and travels to the golden land of America by ship.She meets a handsome boy named Sean,whom she quickly befriends.He returns the favor by helping her find a job at a textile mill in America.Mary quickly finds out America,the land of her dreams, is not all that its "cracked up to be"!
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