ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY
by Sydney Taylor & illustrated by Helen John
The Charles W. Follett Award series stepped off to a sprightly start last year with Carol Hoff's Johnny Texas and this season's offering again features authentic period and regional flavor plus expansive and attractive format, in a loving family story set in 1912 on the lower East Side of New York City. Five little girls in one family supply in lively activities and affection what may be lacking in worldly goods to the close-knit Jewish household in the days of immigrant poverty and hard-ships, and this story chronicles the activities of the family — hated household choring which Mama made fun; the cherished religious holidays — including a Seder celebrated by Papa, Mama, and one daughter, while four scarlet fever patients participated wistfully in the bedroom; a wonderful Fourth of July with real fireworks; an outing to Coney Island; a furious hunger strike by one of the more willful daughters which plunges the family into misery; a pushcart-street shopping expedition; and even a small mystery-romance. Although the author's nostalgia for times past weighs heavily now and then to point the story adultward, this is a honey, gentle book, tailor-made for little girls.