Module One - Classic Children's Literature and Authors

 Classic Chapter Book - All of a Kind Family

Summary
Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie --five girls who make up and all of a kind family, live with their parents in New York City at the turn of the century. Together they share adventures that find them searching for hidden buttons while dusting Mama's front parlor and visiting with the peddlers in Papa's shop on rainy days. The girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises. But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!

Reviews

Written in the early 1950s and set at the turn of-the century in New York City's Lower East Side, Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind books remain a staple with readers who enjoy building long, comfortable relationships with fictional families. Narrator Suzanne Toren's voice is every bit as comfortable and comforting as the stories themselves: from Mama's warm, lightly accented English to fretful Sarah, adventurous Henny, and responsible Ella. The events these five children encounter are definitely domestic in nature — a lost library book, a family-sized bout with Scarlet Fever — right up to the satisfying, if highly unlikely, reunion of two young lovers parted by misfortune. Toren's lively approach, however, invests each occurrence with all due drama. Somewhat frenetic music between each of the chapters seems an unnecessary distraction in an otherwise satisfying audio production.

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By Kristi Beavin

Independent audiobook outfit Listen & Live enters the children's audio arena with this crisp recording of a beloved novel. Taylor has woven her own childhood memories into an account of life in the Jewish tenements on New York City's Lower East Side in 1912. Despite their parents' financial struggles, five sisters--Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie--manage to find joy in each day via family, faith and friends. Whether sneaking penny bags of candy and broken crackers under their bedcovers, making a weekly trip to the library or preparing for a holiday feast, these "all-of-a-kind" siblings inspire with their generally sunny attitude. Though Taylor's themes and sentiments are certainly timeless, her novel is likely to sound out-of-date rather than nostalgic to contemporary listeners. Ethnic stereotypes abound and the plot slows when it frequently digresses into passages that sound like a Judaica primer. Toren gamely serves as narrator as well as the full cast, successfully tackling the occasional accent and a number of Yiddish terms. Her soothing voice and measured performance are well suited to the story's predominantly cheerful tone. One small quibble: the musical interludes signaling each chapter break are a bit boisterous and sometimes distract. Ages 5-up.(Aug.) --  Publishers Weekly

And so...
My impression of this book was that it was wonderfully old-fashioned and today's young readers probably wouldn't even pick it up to look at it because the cover illustration is so out-dated. While I thouroughly enjoyed reading the book, there are so many parts that today's young people just would not be able to relate to that I don't believe many of them would enjoy reading it.  While the language used doesn't present a problem, characters who come home from school for lunch, little or no technology in the content, and doctor visits at home for quarantines will be quiet a stretch for young readers.

Uses for this book
A librarian could read individual chapters of this book, to help teach and discuss manners. There is an incident where one character loses a library book and has to pay the librarian over a period of time which could be a good library lesson for young students.

References

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind-Family. New York: Dell Publishing, 1989, c1951.

Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 15, 2011

Beavin, Kristi. Horn Book Magazine, Jan/Feb 2001, Vol. uu Issue 1, p. 125, 1/2 p.

Publishers Weekly, 09/11/2000, Vol. 247, Issue 37, p. 37, 1/5 p.

Photo retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1L1Y9695213X3.66850&profile=rpl&uri=link=3100007~!61936~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!horizon&term=All-of-a-kind+family+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus