ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY

The 48-minute video below shares the life story of Sydney Taylor through her daughter, 88 at the time of recording. If you'd like a worksheet for author note-taking and conversation-starting, there's one in our printables set.

For a shorter introduction, share some highlights from the Literary Ladies Guide:

• In November 1950 she was told she'd won first place and a big cash prize for her manuscript—but she hadn't even entered the contest! Her husband had found her manuscript in a closet, and had it typed up and submitted it without telling her.

• All-of-a-Kind Family is about her own life in a family of German Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York on a steamer in 1901. Born Sarah Brenner, she's pictured here holdling an apple:

Photo: Literary Ladies Guide, from collection of Jo Taylor Marshall

• The Brenner children really did do well in school, and loved going to libraries, just like in the book. And they had a little brother named Charlie.

• She changed her name to Sydney Brenner at 16, anticipating a career on stage. She dropped out of high school to help support her family as a clerk while attending night school.

• After marriage to Ralph Taylor, she became an actress and a dancer, and then, when baby Joanne was born in 1935, a stay-at-home mom.

• There are four sequels to her most famous book, and after she died in 1978 her husband and the Association of Jewish Libraries established a book prize in her honor.

Talk about the ways the author’s real life shows up in her story. Point out that every author is present in his or her story, whether the connections are obvious or subtle.

For further information

You might be interested in Sydney Taylor's well-reviewed biography, which came out in 2021. We also encourage you to read through the interviews and biographical articles about Sydney Taylor in our Learning Links.

First, ask the kids if they know when this story takes place. (When Sarah tears off the calendar page while she’s dusting, we learn that it’s November 1912.)

Point out that from 1901-1910, there was a massive Jewish immigration from Russia and Germany to New York. Locate those countries on a map of Europe or a globe; then find New York City on a map of New York.

Have the kids circle the Lower East Side on a printed map of Manhattan (or on the setting worksheet in our printables set).

Once they have their geographical bearings, share some information about the timeline and period info. (There's a history worksheet for this in our printables set.) The Tenement Museum website defines "tenement," and provides lots of photos and facts to support discussing life in a tenement building, especially back then. (It was common for a family of ten to live in 325 square feet!)

Ask the kids to imagine the smells—some of which are described in the third chapter of the book—and to think what problems these conditions might have caused for residents. Scarlet fever, for instance, caused devastating epidemics in the 19th and early 20th centuries – in 1914 about five percent of people who caught it died. The bedding and belongings of those who caught it were sometimes burned to keep the disease from spreading.

While you're in "time and place" mode, you might share the meanings of a few antiquated vocabulary words like those below (or do the "Get Acquainted" vocabulary worksheet in our printables set):

• whatnot

• knickknack

• ragamuffin

These may not be used often in conversation, but they do come up fairly often in literature.

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Library books are so important in this story—for one thing, the girls loved books but couldn't afford them; as a plot point, the missing library book indirectly brings Kathy and Charlie together. All through the story, books, libraries, and reading are treated with awe.

SETUP

Show the kids what old-fashioned library books looked like inside in 1912—the endpapers and pocket with hand-written checkout card— and tell them they'll get to create their own versions of those.

SUPPLIES

• white cardstock

• glue sticks

• pocket folders, if using to store worksheets)

• colored pencils and/or markers

• library checkout card OR the template in our printables set, printed on white cardstock

• library pocket OR the template in our printables set, printed on manila/cream cardstock

• library stamp and ink (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Show the kids what end papers are, and how alluring those can be in themselves!  Then tell them it’s their turn to illustrate one page of their own.

Have them close their eyes and think of a scene from All-of-a-Kind Family. Ask them to concentrate on the colors, smells, sounds, and some of the details. When they open their eyes, they’ll have 15-20 minutes (or whatever you've got) to draw that scene. Tell them not to put something important in the middle of the page, since that's where the pocket will go.

While they draw, play Yiddish folk music and:

• talk about the value of the library, in the book and in real life

• show what was probably the story’s real library branch (now Tompkins Library)

• ask the kids how the library would even know that Sarah had lost Peter and Polly in Winter

• since that book was published two years after the story takes place, this is a good time to tell the kids about anachronisms
  

Have them cut, fold, and glue the pocket to the “endpaper.”

Tell them to imagine their book has been checked out by several famous residents of the era first (provide some names and, if you have time, some quick background). 

Here are a few:

Henry Louis Gehrig, 1903-1941
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962
Thomas Edison, 1847-1931
Nellie Bly, 1862-1937

Have them write those "celebrity" names on the cards, then add their own underneath. They'll love being the next one to check out All-of-a-Kind Family after Eleanor Roosevelt or Thomas Edison!

To finish up, be the real library lady, and stamp the card for them—or let them play "library lady" and do it themselves.

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When Mama and the girls go to the Rivington Street Market, it seems everyone is speaking in Yiddish but them. Start off by teach the kids this phrase that Henny could have used when she bought her "fat, juicy sour pickle:"

Zayt azoy gut, git mir (please give me)

Then have them line up in front of the pickle seller (that's you) and give each child an "after-lunch penny" (real or faux). Before paying, each must say:

Zayt azoy gut, git mir a fat juicy sour pickle!

Hand them their purchase in a pickle bag, and ask them to hang on to it until everyone else is served. (Remind them that Henny's sisters had to wait patiently for their pickle bites, too.)

Then ask everyone at once to "do what Henny did:"

She ate it greedily, with noise and gusto, while her sisters watched, their mouths watering.

You will also need napkins and maybe some wipes at hand. :)

Another option

With the help of a market vendor named Reb Sloh Kueker, better known as Crawk Paut, you can also/instead serve hot roasted chick peas in a paper cone. Here's the recipe!

While the kids nosh, have them learn more Yiddish phrases—there's a worksheet for that in our printables set.

To wrap up, play the Yiddish folk song “Tumbalalaika” while the kids are cleaning up—just like the girls would in the story, no doubt.

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At dinner, Mama refuses to let Sarah eat anything else until she’s had at least one spoonful. Very quickly Sarah's reluctance turns to rage.

The children all felt sorry for her. They knew she was being silly, but they could understand. Everybody felt stubborn once in a while.

Later, outside, her sisters gather around her in sympathy, but she tells them to leave her alone, and pushes them away. She doesn’t want their attention—and their sympathy is sure to make the tears start up again.

But we, the readers, are full of sympathy. We've all been there. We want to slip into the story and help her feel understood.

Tell the kids that they get to do just that—pretend they're a sister who got pushed away, and write Sarah a note to help her feel understood.

(If you'd like, there's a worksheet for this in our printables set.)

When they've finished, Invite them to read their writing aloud, and discuss how Sarah would feel after reading the note.

Ask them to think of one of their own family’s rules, and the reasons for it. What are the consequences of ignoring it? If that rule didn't exist, how would life be easier, or more fun? What not-so-easy-or-fun things might happen after awhile?

Your kids will have a fabulous time building miniature Succahs, roofed with green branches and furnished in felt and fabric, and learning about this special Jewish tradition.

SETUP

Tell the kids how and why Succahs are built (or easier yet, show the explanatory video on this page). Then let them know they'll get to build a miniature one! Give each child a box (the walls and floor of the Succah) to fill with a colorful, textural “bits buffet” of supplies.

SUPPLIES

• small cardboard boxes, cut so each has two open sides; notch the two sides of the “roof” for stringing the roof frame, like this:
  
  

  

  
  

• twine for stringing the roof frame, about 2y each

• scissors

• various colors of felt, fabric, and cardstock for furnishings

• faux shrubbery and faux leafy twigs (or real) for weaving through the twine.

DIRECTIONS

Create an open-air roof: make a knot in one end of the twine and weave it through the slots on the sides, as shown above. Tape down the end, and cut off the extra.

Weave greenery across the top, between the strands of twine.

Build furniture and decorations from the colored paper, fabric, and felt:

Under Ella's direction the children cut different fruits from cardboard and colored them. They made strings of colored paper chains and crepe-paper flowers.

When they were all made, the children tacked the paper fruits ont eh walls. Charlie had come over; he strung the bright-colored chains across each other under the roof planks. —Ch. 12, "Succos"

Cleanup tip: As mentioned in our “Dust for Buttons” directions, this project is messy, but our kids had it all picked up in less than a minute after we said: “When the floor and tables are perfectly clean, you get to spend a penny in the candy shop!”

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You can discuss the narrative arc in any of these three ways; we've found the first to be the most engaging, because it breaks up the discussion into bite-size chunks.

1. Introduce the concept of the narrative arc up front, but save the story's scenes to discuss as you go, pausing to "do what the characters did" in fun hands-on ways, while weaving in discussions and other worksheets.

2. OR introduce the concept and complete the worksheet before the activities, so kids have a review of the story fresh in their heads first, and you can remind them "where we are" on the arc as you go.

3. OR at the end of your activities, introduce the concept, then help kids figure out where the different parts of this story fit on it.

The narrative arc worksheet in our printables set summarizes the story by plot point, and has kids fill in some blanks.