Rounded up from 3.75 stars

[from my nine year old daughter]:

This story is about five sisters: Ella (the oldest), Henny (feisty and funny), Sarah (middle child), Charlotte (best friends with the littlest), and Gertie. They are a Jewish family living in New York City. In one of the chapters, Sarah gets earrings, plus if you adventure more you'll see Henny with a bathtub on her head! They celebrate Jewish traditions, meet an interesting nurse, and entertain a boy. They have fun wherever they go!

I like this book and I think you should read it, too.

5.0⭐️

Sobbed on the train again.

I loved these books as a child. My mom bought me the whole set.
Now that she has been ill and needed surgery and then rehab, I have been re-reading the series to her. We are both thoroughly enjoying the stories and the family-the sisters, their brother, mama and papa, and the rest of their family and friends.

I just reread this to confirm my childhood impression--it's by far the weakest of the first four books, perhaps on a level with ELLA. The language is awkward and the dialogue is stilted. The characterizations are weak (especially of the parents and two new characters). Makes me wonder why the author decided to write this book--maybe she wanted to write something about settlement houses, and decided to give it to the AOAKF characters.

This is such a charming read! I loved it. Sweet, funny, beautiful illustrations, a lovely slice of history and culture that comes to life on the page in a beautiful way.

The stories are gentle and sweet.

I loved the first book in this series as a child and didn’t realize there were more of them until recently. While the stories are simple and childish, I felt like they were every bit as charming as the last book and I appreciate the balance of characters who both try to do the right thing and also sometimes make mistakes and have consequences. I am excited to share these books with my daughter when she is a little bigger.

All -of a- Kind Family Downtown is a work of historical fiction. It is a part of a series that chronicles the life of an immigrant Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1900’s. The five daughters have distinctive personalities that develop throughout the series. The book was published in 1972. It educates about Jewish religion and culture for early immigrants. Although this book is a beloved series and medals are mentioned, I cannot find a specific award it has received. The author, Sydney Taylor has established awards for Jewish literature and manuscripts. The series is intended for children and teens; however, the Downtown book was initially rejected for publication because it was deemed to grim for young readers. While the All-of-a-Kind family is loving and fairly comfortable they meet up with a young Italian boy whose mother works in the harsh and unforgiving garment district environment. The hardships endured by immigrants are described and Guido’s mother eventually dies. The Kind family intervenes to lessen the boy’s suffering and embraces him after his loss. While the descriptions of poverty and illness are complete and vivid they are far from graphic. The Kind family tried to help the worst happened anyway. This may be difficult for some children to understand. Although the boy finds a home with his mother’s visiting nurse, it is still a tragic tale. The Family and their new friends are able to move on and find joy. This is an overall happy type ending but the darker themes in this book may make it more appropriate for a slightly more mature reader. The black and white illustrations throughout depict both the warmth of the kind family and the harshness of immigrant life. Although these illustrations are enjoyable they are not entirely necessary. They are a little too vague and generic to really provide us with any information to further our understanding of the characters of the story. This book would be a great accompaniment for middle schoolers learning about history and the immigrant experience in early America.

I haven’t read the others in this series, but the whole family loved this one. We listened to it on audiobook, and contrary to some critiques on Goodreads, we didn’t find the language stilted or awkward at all. I can’t speak to the illustrations as we obviously didn’t see those. I love the sisters’ empathy, the way the book tackled parental loss sensitively, and the way the adults acted in community to support one another. I also thought the descriptions of the Jewish Thanksgiving holiday were particularly noteworthy. Highly recommend this book. Narration very well done by Suzanne Toren.

Another round of hilarious, adorable and heart-warming stories from this darling Jewish family! I loved it!