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Oscar's American Dream
If you want to see 20th century American history unfold before your eyes, stand on a city street corner and watch it change! It all starts when an immigrant named Oscar opens a barber shop...
When Oscar lands on Ellis Island, he has only a suitcase and a down payment in his hands. And he has a dream-- to own his own barbershop. After it opens on the corner of Front St. and Second Ave, Oscar's barbershop becomes a beloved local fixture... until the day Oscar decides to move on and become a subway conductor. Over the years, this barbershop will change hands to become a lady's clothing store, then a soup kitchen. A coffee shop follows, then the space becomes an army recruitment center, then a candy shop. As the years pass and the world changes, the proud corner store stands tall, watching American history unfold around it. Barry Wittenstein and debut husband-and-wife illustration team Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell tell the rich, fascinating story of key moments in American history, as reflected through the eyes--and the patrons--of the corner store.
When Oscar lands on Ellis Island, he has only a suitcase and a down payment in his hands. And he has a dream-- to own his own barbershop. After it opens on the corner of Front St. and Second Ave, Oscar's barbershop becomes a beloved local fixture... until the day Oscar decides to move on and become a subway conductor. Over the years, this barbershop will change hands to become a lady's clothing store, then a soup kitchen. A coffee shop follows, then the space becomes an army recruitment center, then a candy shop. As the years pass and the world changes, the proud corner store stands tall, watching American history unfold around it. Barry Wittenstein and debut husband-and-wife illustration team Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell tell the rich, fascinating story of key moments in American history, as reflected through the eyes--and the patrons--of the corner store.
36 pages, Library Binding
Published October 13, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
December 4, 2020
Not long ago, I reviewed a book about a lake house that bore witness to the changing 20th century in Germany. Now, here is a book about a shop on a corner in New York City that bears witness to 100 hundred years of people's different American dreams from 1899 to 1999.
Oskar Nowicki arrived in New York City via Ellis Island from his native Poland. He has a dream and with money loaned to him by his mother, Oskar "replaced the k in his name with a c" and opened a barber shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue in 1899. The barber shop was successful, but then the subway comes along, and in 1908, Oscar's dream changed when he went to work as a train conductor.
Oscar's barber shop is replaced with Out with the Old, a successful women's clothing shop owned by Nettie and Yettie Jaffe. The Jaffe sisters dressed women from 1915s suffragettes to 1920s flappers, believing that "the good times were here to stay -" right up until the stock market crash of 1929 when "millions like Nettie and Yettie lost everything" and they were forced out of business.
The shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue becamed a soup kitchen, feeding hundreds of hungry out of work New Yorkers and their families every day. When America entered WWII in 1941, the soup kitchen morphed into a United States Army Recruitment Office and "young men lined up around the block, eager for a chance to become heroes."
After the war, the building was boarded up until Moises Ortiz Jr. arrived in New York with money his brother in Puerto Rico lent him and the shop on Front Street and Second Avenue became Bodega Suprema, selling everything "from cigars to coffee beans, toilet paper to newspapers and foods from home..." But when television came along, Moises's bodega became Renate's TV Center, named for his baby daughter.
Renate's TV Center was a good business until fire swept through the shop and "Moise's dreams were no más." Was that the end of the shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue? No, indeed. Wittenstein continues through the 1960s and the March on Washington, and the changing demands of the 1970s and 1980s.
But in 1999, the "wheels of progress" brought a bulldozer to raze the the building. Will this really be the end of the shop that was the embodiment of so many American dreams?
Oscar's American Dream is fiction. There is a Front Street and there is a Second Avenue in NYC, but they don't intersect. No matter, because it is a story not interested in being a factual history, but in being a history about how American dreams are often manifested in the life of a single building. And in a way it tells us to look at that history from both a general point of view and a particular point of view. General, in that you could look at the history of any building anywhere that has been standing for a while and see how changing times and changing dreams have been reflected in it. It is particular because more and more old New York City buildings are being torn down and replaced with nondescript structures, devoid of any personality. Maybe that's true where you live, too. But, with those old buildings go a history of people's dreams.
I really liked the way Wittenstein seamlessly slipped from one era to the next, and using spare text provided a clear picture of what was happening both in the shop and in the world. His purpose, as he writes in his Author's Note, is to see if he could better understand the past by looking at just one building and I would say he has definitely succeeded at that.
Complimenting the text are engaging pencil and pen digitally compiled illustrations. Readers will want to carefully explore these inviting illustrations and find all of little details that add to the story.
Oscar's American Dream is an excellent way to introduce young readers to history, where they will discover that it "is alive. And if you stand on a corner and look carefully, you might even see it go marching by."
The NYC building I miss the most - Ralph's Candy Store on Church Avenue between Argyle and Rugby Roads - what great memories of candy, comics, chocolate egg creams, Mello-Rolls, and friends.
This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was gratefully received from the author.
Oskar Nowicki arrived in New York City via Ellis Island from his native Poland. He has a dream and with money loaned to him by his mother, Oskar "replaced the k in his name with a c" and opened a barber shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue in 1899. The barber shop was successful, but then the subway comes along, and in 1908, Oscar's dream changed when he went to work as a train conductor.
Oscar's barber shop is replaced with Out with the Old, a successful women's clothing shop owned by Nettie and Yettie Jaffe. The Jaffe sisters dressed women from 1915s suffragettes to 1920s flappers, believing that "the good times were here to stay -" right up until the stock market crash of 1929 when "millions like Nettie and Yettie lost everything" and they were forced out of business.
The shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue becamed a soup kitchen, feeding hundreds of hungry out of work New Yorkers and their families every day. When America entered WWII in 1941, the soup kitchen morphed into a United States Army Recruitment Office and "young men lined up around the block, eager for a chance to become heroes."
After the war, the building was boarded up until Moises Ortiz Jr. arrived in New York with money his brother in Puerto Rico lent him and the shop on Front Street and Second Avenue became Bodega Suprema, selling everything "from cigars to coffee beans, toilet paper to newspapers and foods from home..." But when television came along, Moises's bodega became Renate's TV Center, named for his baby daughter.
Renate's TV Center was a good business until fire swept through the shop and "Moise's dreams were no más." Was that the end of the shop on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue? No, indeed. Wittenstein continues through the 1960s and the March on Washington, and the changing demands of the 1970s and 1980s.
But in 1999, the "wheels of progress" brought a bulldozer to raze the the building. Will this really be the end of the shop that was the embodiment of so many American dreams?
Oscar's American Dream is fiction. There is a Front Street and there is a Second Avenue in NYC, but they don't intersect. No matter, because it is a story not interested in being a factual history, but in being a history about how American dreams are often manifested in the life of a single building. And in a way it tells us to look at that history from both a general point of view and a particular point of view. General, in that you could look at the history of any building anywhere that has been standing for a while and see how changing times and changing dreams have been reflected in it. It is particular because more and more old New York City buildings are being torn down and replaced with nondescript structures, devoid of any personality. Maybe that's true where you live, too. But, with those old buildings go a history of people's dreams.
I really liked the way Wittenstein seamlessly slipped from one era to the next, and using spare text provided a clear picture of what was happening both in the shop and in the world. His purpose, as he writes in his Author's Note, is to see if he could better understand the past by looking at just one building and I would say he has definitely succeeded at that.
Complimenting the text are engaging pencil and pen digitally compiled illustrations. Readers will want to carefully explore these inviting illustrations and find all of little details that add to the story.
Oscar's American Dream is an excellent way to introduce young readers to history, where they will discover that it "is alive. And if you stand on a corner and look carefully, you might even see it go marching by."
The NYC building I miss the most - Ralph's Candy Store on Church Avenue between Argyle and Rugby Roads - what great memories of candy, comics, chocolate egg creams, Mello-Rolls, and friends.
This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was gratefully received from the author.
October 12, 2020
Read this book to inspire your children or your students to become interested in history, tracing their homes, or in this case, the proprietors of a local "corner store". Read this book with them and have them research their own personal history of a local store, or of their home. Of course, it would be great if they lived in a place that has been around for a long time, but choosing a favorite building visited in a nearby town or city will work, too.
Barry Wittenstein has created his own fictional history in Oscar's American Dream of a city corner location that changes with the times, a parallel journey of the highlights of the twentieth century. Oskar Nowicki, soon to become "Oscar" came to Ellis Island with only a cardboard suitcase and "a skinny roll of money", ready to make his dream a reality. In 1899, he opened his barbershop, celebrating the new century coming with his Grand Opening. He gave some free haircuts and lemon drops to all the children. Later, he found work that paid better, and that corner store became full of women, suffragettes, too, moving on toward the 1920s, two sisters getting rich selling flapper fashions. "The good times were here to stay–"
You older readers may guess what's coming, the Great Depression. Those sisters lost everything and their store became a soup kitchen for all in need. Years continue to pass as Barry tells this building's story with numerous details added in illustrations from Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell: flappers trying on the latest, the dark times of the Depression, the variety of people sitting together for their free meals, a World War II recruitment office, and on.
This corner store has become a memory during the century for hundreds of people. I imagine a great cloud floating above that store with people, friends, and family, talking together: "Do you remember when you found green banana cakes from Moises at the corner bodega, or when you bought your first television there? Remember when it burned, then Annie & Danny reconstructed it and opened the first coffee shop? Remember Candy's?
Sometimes these places create a bond among us. Sometimes for kids, they are places they could first go alone, for young marrieds, a first big purchase; for company, a welcome meeting place. Curiosity about the history in a favorite building makes life interesting and someday, when you meet old friends, you'll be able to say, "Remember when. . ."
Wishing you all your own connections, and memories, of a building. And I hope you can read this book with kids to inspire them that the places they visit have histories they will enjoy knowing.
Thanks to Barry Wittenstein for this copy, out October 13th!
Barry Wittenstein has created his own fictional history in Oscar's American Dream of a city corner location that changes with the times, a parallel journey of the highlights of the twentieth century. Oskar Nowicki, soon to become "Oscar" came to Ellis Island with only a cardboard suitcase and "a skinny roll of money", ready to make his dream a reality. In 1899, he opened his barbershop, celebrating the new century coming with his Grand Opening. He gave some free haircuts and lemon drops to all the children. Later, he found work that paid better, and that corner store became full of women, suffragettes, too, moving on toward the 1920s, two sisters getting rich selling flapper fashions. "The good times were here to stay–"
You older readers may guess what's coming, the Great Depression. Those sisters lost everything and their store became a soup kitchen for all in need. Years continue to pass as Barry tells this building's story with numerous details added in illustrations from Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell: flappers trying on the latest, the dark times of the Depression, the variety of people sitting together for their free meals, a World War II recruitment office, and on.
This corner store has become a memory during the century for hundreds of people. I imagine a great cloud floating above that store with people, friends, and family, talking together: "Do you remember when you found green banana cakes from Moises at the corner bodega, or when you bought your first television there? Remember when it burned, then Annie & Danny reconstructed it and opened the first coffee shop? Remember Candy's?
Sometimes these places create a bond among us. Sometimes for kids, they are places they could first go alone, for young marrieds, a first big purchase; for company, a welcome meeting place. Curiosity about the history in a favorite building makes life interesting and someday, when you meet old friends, you'll be able to say, "Remember when. . ."
Wishing you all your own connections, and memories, of a building. And I hope you can read this book with kids to inspire them that the places they visit have histories they will enjoy knowing.
Thanks to Barry Wittenstein for this copy, out October 13th!
November 1, 2020
Beginning with the plight of one immigrant from Poland to the United States during the turn of the previous century, author Barry Wittenstein takes the reader on a journey through time of both Oscar and the area of New York he settled in. Wittenstein and the illustrators brilliantly and artistically show the changes in population and buildings as the years go by through good times and bad. The author’s note in the back share more historical details. I love this book both as someone interested in history and also as an immigrant. It is a perfect read for the classroom, too, for sparking conversations about immigration and how this nation has benefited from it.
December 21, 2020
The changes of a corner store in a city is the fictional lens to viewing a century of history and understanding why the United States is a diverse nation of immigrants.
December 17, 2020
This book might not become a classic, but it has all the pieces to become one. Great illustrations and a story of history from "the little guys" point of view. Oscar might not have been a real person, but he represents the story of many who immigrated to this country. And it shows the country’s history in a unique way. The store in this story has been everything from a Barber Shop to a Candy Store, but one this is the same during all that change: change itself and the love that Corner Store gives to the community.
A perfect book for an older classroom teaching history. The history made in the book might not be Textbook Worthy, but it is the true history of this country in many ways.
Might not be for everyone due to the lack of traditional action, but everyone can find something to enjoy (even if only watching the history of the styles of clothing, which I thought cool. I knew when the 1980s and 1990s hit. Dear Lord, we knew not what we were doing!!!)
A perfect book for an older classroom teaching history. The history made in the book might not be Textbook Worthy, but it is the true history of this country in many ways.
Might not be for everyone due to the lack of traditional action, but everyone can find something to enjoy (even if only watching the history of the styles of clothing, which I thought cool. I knew when the 1980s and 1990s hit. Dear Lord, we knew not what we were doing!!!)
April 20, 2020
Oscar's American Dream by Barry Wittenstein Illustrated by Kevin Howdeshell
Published in 2020
Read aloud to elementary aged students. This book is about an immigrant named Oscar who had a dream to own his own barber shop. After he acquired this dream, he decided to follow his heart into another career choice and watched his barber shop be transformed into many different shops. Reflecting the changing of American history through the years. This book is a great read as it shows that as time goes on, change is something that is always happening and that we need to learn to embrace it. Truly a great read! I would definitely recommend this book to be in all classrooms!
Published in 2020
Read aloud to elementary aged students. This book is about an immigrant named Oscar who had a dream to own his own barber shop. After he acquired this dream, he decided to follow his heart into another career choice and watched his barber shop be transformed into many different shops. Reflecting the changing of American history through the years. This book is a great read as it shows that as time goes on, change is something that is always happening and that we need to learn to embrace it. Truly a great read! I would definitely recommend this book to be in all classrooms!
March 11, 2020
If these walls could talk!
Bookmarks is in a 100-year-old building that for the longest part of its life was a car repair shop. We love hearing stories from people who used to work here, or get their cars fixed here, or in one case, a firefighter who battled an engine blaze where the Penguin Classics spinner is now (check out the beams above it!). This immigrant story tells the story of a building that housed a number of different people and their businesses as the community changed around it over decades.
Bookmarks is in a 100-year-old building that for the longest part of its life was a car repair shop. We love hearing stories from people who used to work here, or get their cars fixed here, or in one case, a firefighter who battled an engine blaze where the Penguin Classics spinner is now (check out the beams above it!). This immigrant story tells the story of a building that housed a number of different people and their businesses as the community changed around it over decades.
October 15, 2020
What a lovely, heartfelt story. This is a very impactful history lesson written in a concise and welcoming manner. Oscar's story and those subsequent to his that occupied the corner store are still very relevant today. The author reminds so many of us how we ended up here in the first place and what a wonderful dream "The American Dream" remains. This book should be on every child's bookshelf not only to enjoy such a masterfully crafted story but also to encourage them took at a corner store and image their own story.
October 11, 2020
History is more than a subject in a book! This story began with Oscar's dream and we watched it change over and over as the years went on. This book is a perfect read aloud for my 5th graders and brings about so much discussion about history. Barry Wittenstein always has a way of telling historical narratives in a kid-friendly way! I love how the ending pieces it all together. Remember to read the author's note will helpful backmatter too!
January 4, 2021
This would be an excellent choice for upper elementary social studies. This story spans 100 years of U.S. history starting with an immigrant named Oscar who has a dream of opening a barber shop. Through the years the business changes ownership as other's are following their American dream. Historical events are weaved in throughout the story. This book would be a good introduction for a project for students to research a local historical buildings history over the years.
March 3, 2021
A story about the immigrants coming to America to make their way after wartime and begin businesses. The transformation of the shop as new owners bring in new businesses and the roaring twenties come and soup kitchens are set up. Then there are drafts for war, and fires, and new shops are set up and each new decade the story circles back to the shop and a little girl who first visited Oscar's barbershop and now wants to save the building.
September 24, 2021
The story of a shop in a building that began as a barbershop at the turn of the 20th century. The author/illustrators follow the building as it changes hands and focus for the next 100 years. In the end the author describes why studying history is important and how we are experiencing history everyday. We just have to pay attention.
Probably not the greatest for storytime as it may go over young children's heads.
Probably not the greatest for storytime as it may go over young children's heads.
October 13, 2020
This is a lovely story about a corner store and all of the history it witnesses. The illustrations are charming and there is so much to see and discuss with children as you read it aloud. Perfect for readers of all ages but even more for older students as they are learning about these pivotal moments in American history.
December 26, 2020
We see how aspects of the US (and New York City) in particular change through a corner store, ending with the store being turned into luxury apartments and folks protesting that change. Highlights some economic ups and downs and different waves of immigrants. More detail from 1899 to 1960 than after that.
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December 31, 2020My kids and I enjoyed reading this picture book about how storefronts change over the years and the bravery of those who take that leap to immigrate to America. There's more of my thoughts about the book here: https://raisingreaders.site/2020/12/0...
March 15, 2021
A century of history told through the proprietors of one New York City corner store. As the barbershop gives way to various anchors including a TV store and bodega, readers will see fashions change but a strong sense of community stay the same.
December 13, 2021
Lovely illustrations accompany this picture book about the evolution of a corner store. Follows one location over more than a century. An interesting look at the changing times (my daughter particularly liked seeing the changes in what people were wearing in the images).
October 7, 2020
Beautiful story telling by author Barry Wittenstein. All of us us can relate to the American Dream of immigrants that have come to this country for a better life and to fulfill their dreams.
December 20, 2020
One hundred years of American history in the changes to a city storefront.
February 4, 2021
The use of the one building, showing the changing of the times was a cool concept. Appreciated the more detailed history at the end.
March 20, 2021
What a great concept! My 7 year old son and I loved it. Wonderful illustrations.
April 29, 2021
I nearly cried when the old lady offered her a lemon drop lol
November 3, 2021
An elementary and up picture book about a corner story through the years and how it changes as the times do.
August 13, 2022
Adorable, well written story of the progression of a corner shop throughout history that comes full circle at the end. There was a weird time lapse between 2 events but other than that, it was great. I would recommend for US History teachers to read to their classes maybe towards the end of the year after studying all the events mentioned throughout the school year.
January 17, 2025
Between a three and a four so I rounded down to three. I liked the idea and premise of the book, and the cute twist at the end was sweet. However the writing felt a little off and clunky at times. And it had one of the turn the book 90° to read the pages thing and that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine in children's books. I'd be alright checking this out from the library though.
August 13, 2022
Interesting look at 20th century history through one building. Would be a great read aloud in history at either the beginning or end of the study of the 20th century.
April 9, 2023
Good story through time
January 12, 2024
Describes how a single building was used for so many different purposes over many many years as new immigrants and people kept coming along.
Made me think of how we’re all just passing through.
Made me think of how we’re all just passing through.
May 27, 2024
I really liked this. I think I'll nominate it for the Bluestem!
February 20, 2025
A great book about the life of a corner store in New York. I loved how they took you through the decades and many historical moments. Illustrations were great, too!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews