2.5 stars
I found this to be pretty boring. Basically, the family just lives their lives waiting for Papa to send money for them to come join him in America. The voyage at the end and their arrival in New York felt rushed and anticlimactic. If you enjoy reading about daily life in another time and place, I would still recommend this. The details of daily life for a Jewish family on a farm in a rural area of Eastern Europe (what was once Hungary, but has just become part of Czechoslovakia after World War I) and the different chores and celebrations throughout the seasons of the year were interesting. Some of the content is dated but realistic (for example, a schoolteacher taking a switch to a student), but other parts were really problematic. Notably, there's some stereotypical depictions of Romany people ("gypsies") as thieves and kidnappers and stigma surrounding mental illness (content warning for mention of a suicide attempt).

This is a very good book. Very wholesome reading for children 8 to 12 years of age. We adults, who do not mind reading a good book that does not have you on the edge of your seat in the reading of it, like it also.

The book A Papa Like Everyone Else is about a family in Czechoslovakia who the father of which has immigrated to America and is working to bring the family over! I loved this book for all the info and perspective on what it was like for a poor farm family just after WW1. Then towards the end when they leave their community to join their husband/father in NYC; that made me cry so much! I wish this book had a sequel to tell about their adjustment to life in America.

I've loved Taylor's "All of a Kind Family" series since I was little. This doesn't have quite the magic of those, but I still really liked it. It had a personal connection for me as well because the characters are from Hungary and my great grandparents came to the US from Hungary around the same exact time as the book is set. My great grandfather came to the US first to prepare a life for him and my great grandmother - she followed him after a couple years. It was very cool to see this experience reflected in a work of fiction!

Descriptive and intriguing.

Such a sweet story.

First sentence: Gisella sat very still, her pale green eyes round with wonder. Again the miracle was happening! She had seen it many times before, but always her pulse quickened with the mystery of it.

Premise/plot: A Papa Like Everyone Else is set in Czechoslovakia circa 1918/1919. Szerena and Gisella long for a 'papa like everyone else' since their papa is far away in America. He went a year before the war started to find a job, to get established, to earn enough to bring his family over. The world war changed plans significantly. But now the war is over and the family hopes to be reunited soon. Meanwhile, life on the farm in the farm village continues on. This is a 'slice of life' glimpse at a rural Jewish family from the time period. There isn't "action" or major plot points so much as it is just capturing the 'old world' life as experienced by one Jewish family. (There is at least one chapter with some excitement. But mostly just flavor of life, normal, ordinary, routine.)

My thoughts: I didn't enjoy this one as much as All of A Kind Family. But I liked it well enough. I am very glad I was able to read it. I've always wanted to read more Sydney Taylor.

A touching story about a family waiting to be sent to America by their father.

In the years following World War I a small Jewish family in Czechoslovakia is separated from their Papa. He emigrated to America prior to the war, and between the war, the influenza epidemic and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire, things have held up their reunion. The family identifies as Hungarian but the redrawing of the borders have left them in a new country. It's a interesting glimpse at life in Eastern Europe during that time period, but the stories are brief and the book doesn't hang together well. Furthermore there's very negative depictions of the Roma people, using the g- slur and showing them as dangerous thieves.

I didn't know this book existed, until I stumbled across it at Powell's. I think it's basically All Of A Kind Family, before they left the Old Country.
Update: The AOAKF series is richer and stronger, but this was an interesting, quick read. It's a year or so after WWI, and Mama and her two daughters are living on a small farm in Czechoslovakia (the part that used to be Hungary). Papa is in NYC, saving money to pay for his family's passage. The book covers a year in the village life, with the very poignant departure at the end. Favorite parts were the politically incorrect passages with force-fed geese and Mama insisting her daughters drink beer (to settle their stomachs).

Children's book from the author of the "All-of-a-Kind Family". This one is also about the Jewish immigrant experience in the early part of the 20th century (post-WWI), but focuses on the pre-immigration part. The mother and two girls are waiting for the father, who is already in the US, to save up enough to bring them over. It explores their life in Czechoslovakia (though they identify as Hungarians) and their emotions as they wait for the fateful letter and have to say goodbye to their friends and family and everything they've ever known.

I was sorry that it stopped once they entered the US. I would have loved to read about how they settled down, learned English, brought over more members of their family, etc. I am looking for another book that covers that aspect of it. "Stitching a Life: An Immigrant Story" looks like a YA take on that aspect of the immigrant experience so I will probably read that soon.

Gisella and her older sister Szerena, lived with their mother in a small Jewish town in Eastern Europe. Their father had gone to America five years earlier. Gisella didn't remember her father and she was quite happy with the way things were. The girls had a happy childhood but eventually the day came when they could leave for America. Once they were reunited with their father they could be a normal family like everyone else.