Delightful from start to finish and an all-around hit with the kids.

All of a Kind Family is just so amazing! Such a sweet story of a Jewish family living in the early 1900s. So sweet and innocent. I remember reading it when I was younger and loving it, and was beyond excited when I found out it was a series. The five little girls are so adorable. Their personalities are so unique and different, yet they get along so well. A must must read for pretty much anyone! Especially girls. 6 out of 5 stars! ;)

This was a fun readaloud. Someone likened it to a Jewish Little Women, but it reminded me more strongly of Betsy-Tacy: small, genuine stories of childhood, sharing a particular flavor of American life—in this particular case, that of a Jewish family living on the lower east side of Manhattan in the early 20th century. We live in a largely Orthodox Jewish neighborhood (albeit in Brooklyn), and for my 6-year-old, this proved both a fascinating historical tour of the city's past (the Coney Island chapter in particular) and a helpful primer on Jewish cultural traditions.

What a delightful read, especially since my ancestors lived on the Lower East Side on Manhattan (and i grew up just outside of Coney Island). I wold make a great intro to Ashkenazi Jewish culture for those who did not grow up like me

I was mainly reading All-of-a-Kind Family to proof for a possible school library book. What a lovely story about a Jewish family in New York City. Although the intended audience is 8-12 years, I am planning to use it as a read aloud to my first graders. ❤️

Due to the global pandemic I have read every chapter book I own out loud to my son. This one I also read to him because the family is Jewish and he has been attending a Jewish preschool. Many holidays and traditions are discussed through the chapters and it makes for good conversation. I am a sucker for these "my life story, but as fiction" books and this one is quite charming.

I adored the opportunity to fall in love with this family and to get a glimpse into the grand life they carve for themselves in a rundown Brooklyn tenement. I love women like this mother that make me want to be more grounded and calm and solid for my children and others around me. And these sweet girls who have such a clear understanding of right and wrong and honesty. I just appreciated the short time I got to spend away in their world.

This particular image that the author created was my favourite: "The children stood around the table watching her. A lovely feeling of peace and contentment seemed to flow out form Mama to them. First she put a napkin on her head; then placing four white candles in the brass candlesticks, she lit them. She extended her arms to form a circle. Over the lighted candles the encircling gesture was repeated. After that Mama covered her eyes with her hands, softly murmuring a prayer in Hebrew. Thus was the Sabbath ushered in. The children lined up before Papa. He placed his hand on each child's head, asking God's blessing for his little one. When the ceremony was over, Papa left for the synagogue."

There is something so beautiful to me in the rituals, no matter what religious sect is performing them, they are all just beautiful.

Read to girls (11 and 8 yrs. old). They really enjoyed this story as it is about a family of girls in the Lower Eastside of New York City in the early 1900s. Really teaches a lot about Jewish life and traditions. Sweet.
Read it again with my daughters (14, 12, & 7). So great.

Delightful! I think I read it when I was a kid, but I don't remember it well. It's a very quick read, so it could be that I just gulped it down, as I have always tended to do, and then was off to the next book. But now I am sure I have a greater appreciation for this ground-breaking children's novel.

The story (which, according to the back cover, is set in 1912; I don't remember where that was stated in the book) focuses on the five sisters, Ella, Henrietta (Henny), Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie, who are 12, 10, 8, 6, and 3 (or 4?). They are all girls, and at times dress in the same outfits; their family is Jewish, and they live on the East Side in NYC, an impoverished area with strong community connections, from the peddlers of all backgrounds (Polish, Italian, etc.) who congregate at Papa's junk store, to the various Tantes who the children know and (as on the Jewish holiday Purim) visit.

One thing I found admirable and even astounding at times was Sydney Taylor's ability to describe Jewish holidays (from Sabbath to Yom Kippur to Succot (most commonly called Sukkot these days , or the Feast of Booths) in ways that were interesting, accurate, and uncomplicated -- and, perhaps most importantly, presented Jewish holidays in ways that I believe Christian children could relate to and see that these children were very much like them, with some different specifics. We hear the story of Purim and see the children dress up in silly costumes and take "Purim baskets" to various people (a sort of Halloween/Easter mashup in a way). This was important in 1951 (when the book was first published) and it's still important.

Some aspects of the book are very dated -- as they should be -- and could provide really interesting discussions with children, such as the way that Papa longs for a son (Taylor writes about this with the unapologetic assumption that all five times Mama had babies he wished they were boys), which is very sweetly held in tension with his obvious delight in his five daughters); or the way, in a topic that is quite timely in 2021, the Board of Health imposed quarantines on families when anybody had scarlet fever, putting signs on the doors (maybe this book should be banned! Can you believe the way the government insisted on protecting everybody else in society and didn't give a gosh darn about the individual rights of the families???). Some of these aspects of 1912/1951 values and assumptions could make children a little uncomfortable, or at least curious, but that's what good literature does, right?

For adults who want to understand some Jewish holidays, or at least the festive ways they are celebrated by families, such as Purim or Sukkot, you could read those chapters and know a whole lot more than most people.

Now I'd like to read other books in the series, even though they didn't sound interesting to me until I read this one (the library initially pulled All-of-a-Kind Family on Hannukah when I requested the original story; surprisingly, the local library -- the largest of all of them -- doesn't have a copy of this initial book in the series): More of All-of-a-Kind Family, All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown, All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown, and Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family.

As a kid the first chapter book I remember reading was All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. In the perfect historical fiction book, which later became a series, for Jewish girls, Taylor detailed the life of a family of five girls who lived in the tenements of the Lower East Side around the turn of the 20th century. I read the entire series so many times when I was growing up that I felt as though I was part of the family. When a challenge I entered called for a classic book I read as a child, I could not resist revisiting this story.

Mama and Papa lived a life typical of first generation Jewish immigrants to New York. Papa works as a junk dealer and Mama is a prototypical housewife who runs her home to perfection. They are parents to five girls who are all two years apart in age: Ella, Henrietta (Henny), Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie. The family occupies a four room apartment, and, despite the hardships that come with being an immigrant family, live a comfortable life mixing Jewish and American traditions. In her first book in the series, Taylor takes her reader around the year to show what a traditional Jewish life was like at the time.

As a girl, I always wanted to be Ella. She was the oldest and attempted to set herself apart from her sisters. Whether she was their spokesperson in front of adults or assisting their mother at home, Ella appeared special to me, both as an oldest sibling and as a person. She leads her sisters on adventures to the library, to buy a birthday present for their father, at the beach at Coney Island, and all the holiday celebrations. Growing up, I always found it exciting to read about a Jewish family and seeing how they lived when they first arrived in the United States. They observed the same traditions as I did, and, consequently, I wanted to revisit the book over and over, and I did, savoring the holiday traditional scenes the most.

Each sister has a distinct personality: Henny as a tomboyish rascal, Sarah the sensitive middle child, Charlotte the dreamer, and Gertie the youngest who at 4 1/2 is still very much the baby of the family. All these personalities meld without much conflict, and Taylor weaves their adventure to form a near perfect family. Without the technology available today, the girls had to create their own adventure, whether to visit their father at his junk shop or making up games to play in bed. Even though the family did not have much for luxuries, it was a more wholesome life than today, and the girls always appeared happy with their station in life.

Following All-of-a-Kind Family, Taylor wrote three more books in the series and later a stand alone book featuring Ella. I still own all of them, hoping that one of my daughters will love the books the way I did. This series remained my favorite comfort read growing up, even when the books were well below my reading level. Taylor created the ideal historical fiction series for Jewish girls, and these books have stood the test of time. I am delighted that I was able to revisit their lives again for a reading challenge, and I have an inkling that this will not be the last time that I travel back to early 20th century Lower East Side New York.

Hurrah! A Jewish tenement family in turn-of-the-century LES New York. My Mom can distinctly remember being in fourth grade, in her little bedroom in their trailer in Kentucky, reading this book while her Dad called her to come to dinner. If only for that, I would love this book, but it turns out the book is TOTALLY charming.

A sweet introduction to this American Jewish family in NYC in the early 1900's. I'd like to continue the series. I was very interested in reading that Sydney Taylor began writing about her childhood for her own daughters to read.