A heart-warming, gently humorous and informative family story, my one main regret is that I only recently discovered Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family (I would have loved this delightful story as a child, or a teenager, and am now keener than ever to read the rest of the series, but the sequels are, unfortunately, not nearly as readily available as the first book of the series).

Wonderful, delightful episodes show the joys, the struggles and the close family and neighbourhood ties of a Jewish More...

I first read this book about 50 years ago (yes, I am dating myself) and the last time I read it was probably 49 years ago. I remember loving the book at the time but I think read it just the years I was 9 and 10, and I think I always read library copies. I am wondering if I even read it in third grade but I don’t remember for sure, so I’m sticking with my original read date, which was when I was in fourth grade.

I did a reread, something I’ve long wanted to do, mostly because the Children's Books More...

Back in April I read and reviewed All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown by Sydney Taylor. Having so enjoyed it I went back to read the first in the series, All-of-a-Kind Family.

This first novel introduces the family, five girls, who jokingly call themselves an "all-of-a-kind" family since they don't have any brothers. As with the Uptown novel, the is told as a series of vignettes over the course of a year. One can track the timeline by following the Jewish holidays they celebrate: Passover, Purim and so f More...

I just introduced this stellar series to a fourth grade Little House reader and she came back with stars in her eyes. Ella, Henny, Charlotte, Sarah, Gertie and Charlie, the sweetest little family on the Lower East Side, you did it again.

All-of-a-Kind Family is another book I would have loved when I was younger - such a nice, wholesome story. I probably would have had to rush right out and find all of the All-of-a-Kind books. I still enjoyed the book very much reading it for the first time as an adult, and wouldn't mind reading more of them sometime. I really liked that although the family was poor, they were very happy and their lack of "things" wasn't a huge issue for them like it is in some stories. I also really enjoyed read More...

I realize how much I love the books I read as a child, because I get so excited just thinking about them. These books were an amazing treasure to me. I had never read about any other Jewish children. To read of the richness of their lives, even while they lived in relative poverty on the Lower East Side of New York, filled me with joy, and some envy. It was this series of books, that I read and reread over and over again, that informed my impression of life in that era, a time when my grandmothe More...

I had chosen my books, narrowed them down to those I thought looked most promising, and begun to wait for my mother and sister to wrap up their purchases. The library sale was practically over. But while I was waiting, I figured that I might as well glance through the children's books one last time before we left..... and that's when I found All-of-a-Kind Family.

The Story.

Because All-of-a-Kind Family doesn’t exactly have a plot-line, it is difficult to describe what 'the story' is. Each chapter More...

'All-of-a-Kind Family' does not have the adventure form that most modern novels for children have, it is a glimpse into the urban past seen from a child's point of view. It is the first book about Jewish children written for a general audience and introduces Jewish customs and immigrant culture in an relaxed way. It is the story of a family with immigrant parents, which, though still observant in this generation, is rapidly acculturating. It was first told to Sydney Taylor's (only) child as stor More...

"All-of-a-Kind Family" is a wonderful children's book, following a young Jewish family in early 1900s New York. Each chapter is a short story in itself, a vignettes of a certain season or event in the lives of five sisters - eldest Ella, mischievous Henny, studious Sarah, daydreamer Charlotte, and little Gertie.

I first read "All-of-a-Kind Family" as a child, and loved it. Having no sisters myself, I was captivated by the sisters' interactions. Also, growing up in a Christian home, I was unfamili More...

by Sidney Taylor

I really love this family. It's one of those where I can believe that the girls would really both bicker and love each other as they do. And actually, there's not a lot of bickering. I think my favorite has always been Ella, just because she's the oldest and so am I (I tend to really identify with oldest children in books. Yes, I have problems with fairy tales.)

I also loved and love the glimpse into another culture. The family are observant Jews and their faith is the main underp More...

I always tell my class that my love affair with books began with A Wrinkle in Time, but until this book was posted I almost had forgotten that the librarian in my town had this book at the ready for me (along with the others in the series) when I walked into the library every week. This is the first book that I read MORE than twice each year. I LOVED this book.

It seems odd saying I loved it because it's a very straight forward tale of a group of sisters set in New York in the hmmm early 1900's. More...

I don't think I could possibly give this book less than 5 stars. I realized as I was re-reading it for the first time in years just how many times I had actually read it. Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie are very old, very dear friends of mine. I have my favorite chapters ("The Sabbath"--Arbis! Shaynicke, gutinke arbislach!--"Purim Play," "Succos," "Rainy Day"), and I was anticipating even phrases that would come up in the next pages.

I'm glad I haven't read the next four books as many t More...

I loved this book (and the sequels) when I read them as a young girl. They're a well-written and entertaining account of events in the lives of a Jewish family on the Lower East Side in the early part of the 1900s. Some of the stories have morals, while others just describe life in the era. Strong on details and on character (each character has her own personality and opinions).

I read these books religiously and Ella was my favorite since she's the headstrong one. For years I used to dream of traveling to New York's Eastside on market day to buy a pickle with a nickel...
When I got older I ate Salmon Skin and it was nowhere near as delicious as the book made it sound but I still love my little Jewish family.

Charming, sweet, heartwarming and thoughtful! This entire series is a gem. The family is so sweet, so tight-knit. While the book is a pure pleasure to read simply because you will love the family so much, it's also interesting from a historical/social standpoint to read about early 1900s America and this Jewish family's experience.

All of a Kind Family is a genuine treasure and must read for the family. As we started to read it as a family my daughter Gwyneth enjoyed listening to it so much, she took it during the day and finished it up. I couldn't resist either, I also read ahead and finished it too. Set in the turn of the century this book is simply about a sweet family. There is a mother, father, and five little girls. What I enjoyed so much about this book was the children's adoration for their parents, especially for More...

This is one of my all-time favorite children's books from when I was little. :) I loved how the family faced everything together and found frugal ways to have fun. Since they were Jewish, I also learned a lot from their family holiday traditions. This is one I love to pick up at McKay and pass on to friends. :)

This children’s novel, set in the early nineteen hundreds in New York City, follows a year in the life of an orthodox Jewish family with five daughters. It provides a good overview to most of the Jewish holidays and was a good way of introducing my daughter to Jewish customs. (She kept asking me, however, why only the dad went to synagogue, and I wasn’t sure of the answer.) I personally didn’t find it very interesting; it’s slow-paced and not written in a particularly alluring style, and, on the More...

Oh my goodness. I loved this so much. I wish that I had read it as a child so that I could have had years of rereading it. The story of these five sisters is so charming and it really does make you want to be one of them.

I read this series many times as a child. I loved the glimpse of a time and culture unfamiliar to me. Quarantines? While it turned out my Dad had been quarantined as a kid for Measles I think, he promptly slipped out of the house via a tree branch and played with neighborhood kids. But I only found that out as an adult, and never had read about the effects on a family before. Dusting for PENNIES? Even as a child a penny was peanuts. Splitting up a candy store order based on half pennies? See com More...

While this book is valuable as a look at growing up in New York at the turn of the Century and especially for growing up Jewish then, it has too many politically incorrect parts for me. Examples like: "Polack, who had the heavy body and the broad stolid face of a polish peasant."
"Joe, a swarthy Italian," says: "Mucha rain! Bah! No gooda for business!" Picklenose... It's all too much for me in a time when certain Americans want to divide us by our differences rather than our similarities. The coi More...

Each chapter in this book about a family with five girls is another vignette in their lives over the course of a year, covering major Jewish holidays and depicting tenement life at the turn of the century. I was able to predict a plot twist well before it arrived, but I don't know if a young reader would (now that's one question to ask during book club!).

The time period as well as all the stereotypes will make this a good book to discuss. I did like Mama's ingenuity and the love the family has More...

Do you ever think of a book you loved while you were a child and cannot remember what it was called as you would like to share it with YOUR KIDS? This was one of those books!

With the help of a FANTASTICE children/ya librarian I found this series of books about a family of 5 Jewish girls in the early 1900s -- I think I am more excited than the girls are about reading this book together!!! (and its five sequels!)

Yes my "reading pledge" count includes books like these ... they are all novels (vs. p More...

This is a series I reread every year. No one else has ever captured the early 1900's in the Jewish Upper East side of New York like this, and it's fascinating to read about the holidays and customs and everyday life that this little troop of girls experiences. I still wish I could walk through those streets teeming with peddlers selling big dill pickles, candied orange slices, and spiced chick peas!

These books are great for those who love old-fashioned stories about growing up, like the Little More...

I give this four stars for education content.
This is a sweet slice-of-life tale of a young, large Jewish family living on the Lower East side of New York City at the turn of the century.
While reading, you get to follow around five little sisters through the neighborhood they knew at that time as well as a trip to Coney Island. The details are wonderful and kept on child-like terms, yet were still completely enjoyable and informative to me.
I read this with my 6 yr old daughter and she delighted i More...

This is another reread from childhood. I remember reading this as a childhood and my mouth watering over the food the family ate. I was also so envious of the fun they had. Pretty incredible since author describes them as a poor Jewish family, bursting out of their little apartment living during pre WW1 in NYC's Lower East Side. Because of the small community I grew up in, reading this book in elementary school was sadly my first exposure to to Jewish culture. (It is no wonder that because of th More...

I've been going through all these books mentioned in Shelf Discovery, and most of them were just as good as I remember them being. This one let me down a little. It was a little too old fashioned and cutesy for me now. But at the time, they were some of my favorite books. As an only child, I wanted four sisters to play with, and growing up in a small midwestern town made up of Lutherans, Catholics and the occasional exotic Methodist, it taught me all about Jewish people, which I probably knew no More...

I am currently reading this book to Froggy. It was one of my favorite books when I first started reading real books.