This was such a sweet story. I listened to this with my almost 4yo and she loved it! It was neat to hear about the different traditions and holidays that the Jewish families had and about life in the city in the early 1900s. Any time they talked about a Bible character my daughter would say "I have heard about them in church!"

I have a soft spot for children’s books which capture particular feelings from childhood, and this one does just that. From Ella’s unrequited feelings for the older Charlie to Gertie’s rising sobs at realizing she’s no longer the baby of the family, to a relatable childhood vignette, Sarah’s stubborn refusal to eat soup - I found this portrayal of childhood familiar, even though the setting - a Jewish family living in the tenements of turn-of-the-century New York - was not.

Enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Sometimes the stories seemed to suffer from a point of view problem as if they were told through Mama's eyes. However, they depict a time and a place so vividly and with such charm, it is easy to forgive.

Such a sweet book! Another one that Jonah and William insisted would be boring, and then they loved it. ☺️

This is a nice story about a family of five girls growing up in New York City early in the twentieth century. There is a lot of 'color' about Jewish lived identity; I'm glad we read it with our girls.
But nice does not always equal interesting. Ahem.

This children’s novel, set in the early nineteen hundreds in New York City, follows a year in the life of an orthodox Jewish family with five daughters. It provides a good overview to most of the Jewish holidays and was a good way of introducing my daughter to Jewish customs. (She kept asking me, however, why only the dad went to synagogue, and I wasn’t sure of the answer.) I personally didn’t find it very interesting; it’s slow-paced and not written in a particularly alluring style, and, on the heels of so much Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis, it seemed rather bland, but it’s a great book for young girls, because it deals with so many of their little everyday trials, the small problems and concerns that loom so large for them. It’s something to which a young girl can relate, and my daughter enjoyed having it read to her. We will probably be reading another one of the novels in the series sometime in the future. Even my almost-four-year-old son liked listening in to it from time to time, and my ten-year-old nephew listened to a chapter while we were visiting, so there must be something appealing about this book to modern children.

Yes, this is a children's book, and yes, it's a reread. I need some literary comfort food in my life right now.

These were some of my favorite books growing up - it felt so special and wonderful to have stories about Jewish children like myself, and the characters were so real and the setting so like and unlike my own life, and the prose is sweet without being condescending, and realistic without being harsh, and I love everything about it.

I haven't read any of the series in over 30 years; I was a little afraid to look back at it with an adult's eyes, but it's still just as amazing as when I found the first one. I am so grateful this exists....

Sweet story, fun characters, easy to read. My 11 year old boy thought it was "nice", and I think my girls will love it some day. I really loved the peek into Jewish life.

The chapter where the family gets scarlet fever and has to quarantine during Passover really hits different right now :(

I liked the look at Jewish holidays and family life in 1912 NYC. Overall the book is as a little too wholesome and lacking in depth.

Will always love these books.

I loved Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and little Gertie and recall them almost like childhood friends. Recently I read a review here by Alwynne which added nuance to those memories, things I didn’t know about the book - that Sydney Taylor created it out of the bedtime stories told to her daughter, for example - but most particularly, that it was published in a period of pronounced anti-semitism, giving the series’ title an emotional strength I didn’t feel before: All of a Kind, and proudly so.