All-of-a-kind Family

Rating:
Summary: An audiobook worth listening to!
Review: As an elementary school teacher I rely on audiobooks a great deal as it helps struggling readers not only participate fully in the story, but works as a wonderful foray into the world of reading.I personally enjoyed this audiobook so much that I played it for my entire class. They loved it! The narration was excellent, calming even the rowdiest kids, and they were instantly drawn in. It was a great introduction to the Jewish culture and heritage, as well as an excellent discussion piece about immigrant America at the turn of the century! Consider this for your classroom, it has sparked curiosity, debate and learning for weeks!

Rating:
Summary: Loved in our Family
Review: Everyday my 3 year old boy listens to the audio tape of All of a Kind Family 3-5 times. He calls it his "little girls tape" and sits in front of the stereo drinking in the stories. While he loves the Little House in the Prairies cd's this is his long time favourite. We have listened to this continually for a year now and he has every word memorised... I should know because he often starts to retell the stories (verbatim) and my wife and I have to listen to this little gentile kid retell jewish stories. Anyway, it is a fantastic slice of life and definately helps us to inculcate the kind of values that we want in our family.

Rating:
Summary: Loved in our Family
Review: Everyday my 3 year old boy listens to the audio tape of All of a Kind Family 3-5 times. He calls it his "little girls tape" and sits in front of the stereo drinking in the stories. While he loves the Little House in the Prairies cd's this is his long time favourite. We have listened to this continually for a year now and he has every word memorised... I should know because he often starts to retell the stories (verbatim) and my wife and I have to listen to this little gentile kid retell jewish stories. Anyway, it is a fantastic slice of life and definately helps us to inculcate the kind of values that we want in our family.

Rating:
Summary: Why are the sequels out of print?
Review: I first read this book when I was eight years old, and I loved it so much I went to the library and checked out the sequels. As other readers mentioned, not only are these books interesting and fun to read (I still enjoy reading them at age 37) but Christians can get a glimpse of what the Jewish religion is really like on a day-by-day basis. Other than Hanukah and Passover, school kids aren't really taught much about the other Jewish holidays. I remember in fourth grade, a Jewish girl in my class brought in Hamentaschen pastries, and I normally wouldn't have tried something with prunes in it - but because I had read about Purim in "All of a Kind Family", I discovered a wonderful treat!

I should also say that the illustrations in the books are terrific! Esp in the later books, little Charlie is so cute.

Hopefully the publisher or whoever owns the copyright to Ms. Taylor's books will read the reviews here on Amazon and re-release the entire series, as it deserves to be done. (I seem to recall the paperbacks were available in a gift box in the 70's).

Rating:
Summary: one of the best ever
Review: I happened upon a copy of this book at a rummage sale when I was seven years old and have enjoyed it ever since. Though it is never laugh-out-loud funny, it is highly entertaining and definitely falls into the category of feel-good books. Author Sydney Taylor created sweet and interesting characters whose lives you immediately want to follow.

The story chronicles the lives of five Jewish sisters growing up in New York at the turn of the century. Four-year-old Gertie is the baby of the family. Six-year-old Charlotte is a daydreamer who is idolised by her little sister. Eight-year-old Sarah cannot be better described than by Taylor, who refers to her in the narrative as "always the practical one". Ten-year-old Henny is the impish, mischievous one of the bunch (and they need one, considering how docile the other daughters usually are!). Twelve-year-old Ella is the oldest daughter, a talented singer with a big crush on her father's friend Charlie, who is hiding a secret.

The story chronicles the lives of the family throughout their various trials and tribulations over the year. If my sister and I are any indication, any reader will want to read and re-read it!

Rating:
Summary: Lost Childhood treasure
Review: I have this book already. The cover is gone. The back pages are ripped but it is one of my favorite stories. I am 32 now and am reading it for the 100th time. :) And in the middle of reading about Sarah losing her library book, I thought of Amazon. You have it and 2 others about my favorite family!!! I'm thrilled that now I can order the books to treasure for 32 more years!!

Rating:
Summary: for anyone with a heart and hunger
Review: My childhood favorite! All the books in this series were read again and again, and sometimes outloud, by me and my four siblings. Fun, funny, endearing and memorable. Right up there with I REMEMBER MAMA, FARMER BOY, LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS, and ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK. A timeless slice of life for kids ages 3 to 18 to enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Great historical children's series of books
Review: Some of my favorite childhood memories are of going to my hometown library & I always checked out the 'All-Of-A-Kind Family' books. I loved & enjoyed the entire series! When I started working at my first bookstore, I finally bought the series for myself. I think it's a great series because it can be so different than a typical kids' life. I grew up in a Catholic family of six in a small, Midwestern town & where our relatives all lived out of state. This became such an interesting & different perspective of families & family life. The era was after the turn of the century New York City. The family was Jewish, poor & with five girls, but had a rich heritage & connection with the neighborhood & the extended relatives & friends all living nearby. It gives a great view of how life in a different era can seem very similar, but also so different from our current life. Each book is set up easily with each chapter devoted to a new problem or predicament concerning one of the girls. The five daughters throughout the series cover every age, so girls of all ages can & will identify with any of them at different times. All in all, a great series of books for girls, but boys might also enjoy these stories too!

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Summary: Turn-of-the-century Jewish experience - a child's-eye view.
Review: Sydney Taylor won the Follett Publishing Company book award - she didn't even know her husband, Ralph, had submitted her first novel to the publisher! - for this, her first children's book. Thus began a career that is most distinguished for the series detailing the adventures of five sisters early in this century. Most distinguishing about them is the fact that they are Jewish, not as a stereotyping characteristic but rather a means to explore landscape that hadn't yet been handled in children's literature. This first in the series is particularly insightful in its introduction of the Jewish high holy days - Sabbath days, Yom Kippur, Purim and Succos among them. (Plus, the author even throws in the Lower East Side's celebration of a purely American event - Fourth of July - to demonstrate that this bright-spirited family is tied not merely to its religious roots but is nationalistic as well!) While All-of-a-Kind Family is one of those falsely sunny books that came out of the 1940s and 1950s, it's nice to believe that this is the life that Taylor lived as a child. (Incidentally, Taylor's real name was Sarah, and the stories are based loosely on her own childhood. All of the sisters' names are real.) Sydney Taylor died in February 1978. This initial story was followed by four more books in the series: More All-of-a-Kind Family, All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown, All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown and, published posthumously, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family.

Rating:
Summary: all of a kind family
Review: The family I am talking about works together and tries not to yell (most of the time), unlike my sister and I. The main characters are the children. This book talks about Jewish holidays one of them is, a holiday called Purim. Purim is a holiday when you get together with friends,family and have a festival. This book is good for readers who like books with chapters that never get boring. The children's mother has lots of tricks up her sleeve, like when she hides buttons for then to find when they are doing their chores. She changes the number of the buttons all the time which makes it fun to do. The aurthor tells about the troubles they go through with money and family problems, like when they don't have enough money to give the kids allowance. This book is intersting and good for all of a kind readers, from the ages 8-15. So read All Of A Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor