Rereading All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

Cover of All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor, five girls in identical dresses on front steps of building.

(You can listen to this episode here.)

On this episode, we discuss All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor’s 1951 classic about five sisters growing up on New York’s Lower East Side. Over the course of a year, the girls experience joys (like celebrating Jewish holidays and the Fourth of July) and sorrows (like getting scarlet fever and even worse losing a library book), and spend a lot of time thinking about how to spend their allowance (one penny).

Mentioned on this episode:

Other books in the series:

More All-of-a-Kind Family

All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown

All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown

Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family

Also mentioned:

Peter and Polly in Winter by Rose Lucia (1914), Sarah’s lost library book.

From Sarah to Sydney by June Cummins (a biography of Sydney Taylor)

Jennifer Weiner’s New York Times review of From Sarah to Sydney

One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor, a children’s picture book biography by by Richard Michelson (read Deborah’s interview with Michelson here)

Recommended for fans of All-of-a-Kind Family:

Deborah: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Mary Grace: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, Meet Me in St. Louis by Sally Benson, Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes mentioned:

Rereading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Rereading Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Rereading Half Magic by Edward Eager

The podcast is hosted by Buzzsprout at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com and is available on SpotifyApple Podcasts, and other platforms.

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

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