Front cover of a 2017 edition of Molly's Pilgrim.
Molly's Pilgrim (ISBN 9780688021030) is a children's book of forty-eight pages written by the American author Barbara Cohen with black and white illustrations by Daniel Mark Duffy. It was first published in 1983.
The story's title character and protagonist is a Russian Jewish girl who, fleeing religious persecution in her homeland, has come to the United States with her parents and settled in the small town of Winter Hill. Molly is not happy in Winter Hill. She is acutely aware that she is different from the other children in her class and is bullied by some other girls because of those differences. When Molly first learns about the American holiday of Thanksgiving, she comes to identify with the Pilgrim Fathers who created it. Her teacher also recognizes that connection, as do her classmates who begin to accept her as a result.
Molly's Pilgrim was adapted as an Academy Award-winning short film that was released in 1985.
Plot[]
The story takes place at an unspecified point in the past, probably in the early 20th century. It is narrated from the point of view of an adult Molly who is recalling her childhood experiences.
The year before the story begins, Molly and her parents left Russia to escape anti-Jewish pogroms and came to the United States. At first they settled in New York City. They later moved to the small town of Winter Hill when her father was offered a better job there and better accommodation that came with the job. Molly is the only Jewish girl in her class and has a strong feeling of being different from the other children. A group of other girls, whose ringleader is named Elisabeth, bully Molly. They make fun of her small eyes, big nose and imperfect English. Molly tells her mother about this bullying. Her mother offers to go to the school and speak to Molly's teacher Miss Stickley about it. Aware that her mother, who speaks hardly any English, is different from the other children's mothers, Molly fears that she would only be shown up further if her mother came to the school. She lies and tells her mother that she will speak to her teacher herself.
One day in November, Molly and her classmates have a lesson in which they read about the Pilgrim Fathers and the first Thanksgiving. Molly. who has never heard of the holiday or its creators before, enjoys the lesson. Miss Stickley tells the children that they are going to make a model of the Pilgrim town in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They will make the buildings in class but make the people at home. The boys will make Native Americans and the girls will make Pilgrims. Some girls are assigned to make Pilgrim men and others are assigned to make Pilgrim women. Molly is one of the ones assigned to make a Pilgrim woman.
At home, Molly asks her mother for a clothes peg so she can do her homework. Her mother is confused by this request. Molly tells her that she needs it to make a Pilgrim doll. Her mother does not know what a Pilgrim is. Molly explains that Pilgrims were people who came to America from the "other side" so they could have freedom to worship in their own way, something they did not have at home. Molly's mother thinks that sounds like her. She tells Molly to do the rest of her homework and then go and play. Molly's mother will make the doll.
The following morning, Molly is very impressed by the beautiful doll her mother has made. She is, however, a little concerned that the doll does not look like the Pilgrim women in her school book. The doll is wearing traditional Russian clothes like the ones her mother wore when she was a child. Molly's mother explains that the doll represents her because she is a Pilgrim. She came to America to have religious freedom she did not have at home.
At school, Elisabeth makes fun of Molly's doll. Miss Stickley says that the doll is beautiful but thinks that Molly misunderstood the assignment. Molly explains that the doll represents her mother because her mother is a Pilgrim who came to America to have religious freedom. Miss Stickley realizes the truth of what Molly has said. She says that she will put the doll on her desk to remind the children that Pilgrims are still coming to America. She also points out that Thanksgiving only exists because the Pilgrim Fathers got the idea for it after reading in the Bible about the harvest holiday of Tabernacles, known to Molly as Sukkoth, a festival celebrated by Jews like Molly and her mother.
The other children start to accept Molly afterwards. Miss Stickley tells Molly that she would like to meet her mother and talk with her. Molly reasons that, since her mother has been invited to the school, it would do no harm if she visited it. She also concludes that, "It takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving."
Film adaptation[]
Molly's Pilgrim was adapted as a 24-minute live-action American film of the same name that was released in 1985. It is a largely faithful adaptation with some small but significant changes.
The setting of the film is a present-day urban one. Molly's father, a character who is referred to in the book but does not appear in it, features prominently in the film as a loving and supportive parent. The doll that Molly's mother makes, a considerably larger one than the one made out of a clothes peg described in the book would have been, is said to depict Molly herself rather than her mother. It is dressed in clothes like the ones that Molly used to wear to do traditional Russian dancing. One of Molly's classmates, a boy named Arthur, speaks the line, "I think it takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving." As in the book, other children make fun of Molly for her physical appearance and her difficulties with English. They are also wary of her because she is Russian. There is no reference in the film's dialogue to Molly or her parents being Jewish until ten minutes before it ends. A box with a Star of David on its lid, later revealed to be a music box that plays the Israeli national anthem, does however appear in Molly's bedroom during the film's opening credits.
The film was directed by Jeffrey D. Brown. It stars Sophia Eliazona as Molly, Polims Klimovitskaya as Molly's mother, Albert Makhtsier as Molly's father and Judy Yerby as her unnamed teacher. Barbara Cohen, the author of the book Molly's Pilgrim, appears in the film as a school crossing guard.
Molly's Pilgrim won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Short Subject.