All-of-a-Kind Family
{{short description|1951 children's book by Sydney Taylor}}
{{Infobox book|
| name = All-of-a-Kind Family
| image = All-of-a-Kind-Family-Cover.jpg
| caption =
| author = Sydney Taylor
| country = United States
| language = English
| translator =
| cover_artist =
| genre = Children's novel
| publisher = Follett Publishing Company
| release_date = 1951
| media_type = Print
| pages = 149 pp
| isbn = 0440400597
| congress =
| oclc =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by = More All-of-a-Kind Family
| illustrator = Helen John
}}
All-of-a-Kind Family is a 1951 children's book by Sydney Taylor about a family of five American Jewish girls growing up on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1912.{{Cite book|last=Taylor, Sydney, 1904-1978.|title=All-of-a-kind family|date=1951|publisher=Dell|isbn=0-440-40059-7|location=New York|oclc=19596819}} It was followed by four sequels.
Background
All-of-a-Kind Family is based on Sydney Taylor's recollections of her childhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where her family settled along with many other Jewish families after migrating from Eastern Europe by way of Germany.{{Cite web |url= https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/taylor-sidney|title=Sydney Taylor |publisher= Jewish Women's Archive| website= JWA.org|access-date=2020-04-28}} The main characters are named for Taylor's real-life sisters, Ella, Henny, Charlotte, and Gertrude, and the middle sister was given the author's birth name, Sarah.{{Cite web|url=https://bloom-site.com/2018/10/30/sydney-taylor-bringing-all-of-a-kind-family-into-the-world/|title=Sydney Taylor: Bringing All-of-a-Kind Family into the World|date=2018-10-30|website=Bloom|language=en|access-date=2020-04-28}}
The book's genesis was stories of her childhood that Taylor would tell her daughter, Jo. Taylor wrote:
"I took my daughter Jo down to the old neighborhood where Papa, Mama and the five little girls had lived. But the past was dead there; it lived only in me. I decided to write it all down for Jo. Perhaps in this way I could re-create for both of us some feeling of that other life."{{Cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/14/archives/sydney-taylor-73-wrote-childrens-books-and-won-charles-w-follett.html|title=Sydney Taylor, 73, Wrote Children's Books and Won Charles W. Follett Honor|date=1978-02-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}While Taylor wrote All-of-a-Kind Family for her daughter, by some accounts she had no plans to publish the story. But, the story goes, her husband secretly submitted the manuscript for the Charles W. Follett Award in 1951, and it won, launching Taylor's career and what would become a five-book series.
The book is noteworthy for its depiction of a joint Jewish American identity, with the characters expressing both pride in their Jewish traditions and American patriotism, following the trajectory of Taylor's own family's assimilation. "Not only are Jewish customs explained honestly and frankly, but Taylor makes them attractive and positive, drawing in her readers, both Jewish and non-Jewish," the scholar June Cummins writes.{{Cite journal |last= Cummins |first=June|date=September 2003 |title=Becoming an 'All-of-a-Kind' American: Sydney Taylor and Strategies of Assimilation |url= http://www.longwood.edu/staff/miskecjm/384allofakind.pdf|journal=The Lion and the Unicorn|volume=27|issue=3|pages=324–343 |doi=10.1353/uni.2003.0032|s2cid=143561625 |via= longwood.edu}}
Plot
Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertrude are five sisters growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1912. The book follows them through a year of their childhood, as they deal with mundane chores, find joy in eating candy in bed and collecting used books from their father's junk shop, recover from scarlet fever, and celebrate Jewish holidays such as Purim and Sukkot as well as the Fourth of July. They also inadvertently help their father's friend Charlie solve a mystery from his past and, in the end, welcome a new family member.
Main characters
- Ella: The oldest of the five sisters, age 12, born 1900. She is based on the author's own eldest sister of the same name.
- Henrietta "Henny": The second sister, age 10, 1902. She is the most wild and mischievous one. She is the only one whose hair is blonde and curly.
- Sarah: The third sister, and the author's avatar. Age 8, 1904, as she was based on the author herself. She is the most practical and levelheaded one who values her education.
- Charlotte: The fourth sister with her head in the clouds, age 6, 1906. She is the most imaginative one of the sisters.
- Gertrude "Gertie": The youngest of the five sisters, age 4, 1908. Gertie looks up to Charlotte.
- Mama: The girls' mother, a resourceful homemaker.
- Papa: The girls' father, who runs a junk shop. He has several brothers.
- Kathy Allen: A kind librarian at the local library who befriends the girls. She is Charlie Graham's lost sweetheart.
- Herbert "Charlie" Graham: Papa's good non-Jewish friend, a junk peddler with a mysterious past whom Ella is secretly infatuated with. He is Kathy Allen's lost sweetheart.
Sequels
Taylor followed All-of-a-Kind Family with four sequels: More 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/30697/sydney-taylor|title=Sydney Taylor| publisher= Penguin Random House|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-28}} The final novel was published shortly after Taylor's death in 1978. In 2018 a picture book sequel called All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah written by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky{{cite web |title=All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538422/all-of-a-kind-family-hanukkah-by-emily-jenkins-illustrated-by-paul-o-zelinsky/ |publisher=Penguin Random House |access-date=14 June 2021}} was named a Kirkus best book of 2018 and won the Sydney Taylor Book Award for Younger Readers in 2019. {{cite web |title=Sydney Taylor Book Awards |url=https://jewishlibraries.starchapter.com/images/downloads/Sydney_Taylor_Book_Award/stbaallawardwinnersever.pdf |publisher=The Association of Jewish Libraries |access-date=14 June 2021 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508135029/https://jewishlibraries.starchapter.com/images/downloads/Sydney_Taylor_Book_Award/stbaallawardwinnersever.pdf |url-status=dead }}
Awards and legacy
Taylor received the Charles W. Follett Award for All-of-a-Kind Family
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Children's literature|Novels}}
- [https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/all-of-a-kind-family All-of-a-Kind Family] at the Jewish Book Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:All-of-a-Kind Family}}
Category:Novels set in New York City
Category:1951 children's books
Category:Jewish American novels
Category:American children's books
Category:Children's books set in the 1910s
Category:Children's books set in New York City
Category:Children's books about Jews and Judaism
Category:Novels set in the 1910s