All of a Kind Family: Good clean fun and a window into the past

Title: All of a Kind Family
Author: Sydney Taylor, Helen John
Age Range: 7-12
Genre: Historical Fiction

I worry a lot about what my children consider to be entertainment.  In a world where there is TV, amusement parks, ipods, iphones, cable, video games and cartoons, there is never any lack of entertainment.  But I worry that this overly commercialized society will eventually stifle any creative juices in their bones and stunt their imaginations.

I spend a lot of time talking to my children about how the world is changing, and how they have so many things that I didn't have as a child.  I also really like them to read about times and places where people didn't have as much, and instead relied on their wits, their imagination, and their spunk to get them through the day.  I like them to imagine worlds where the things that they consider to be normal didn't exist and still people were very happy and enjoyed and loved their life.

I loved this book as a child.  I remember picking it up at my local library, and reading the first page and deciding to get it.  It was a heavy hardback book, but I loved reading books about lots of siblings, especially sisters since I didn't have any sisters.  There were several in the series and I know I read all of them.

The story takes place in New York, post WWII and portrays a wonderful Jewish family and the escapades of their life. There are five girls ranging in age from four years to twelve year old.  It is more a series of vignettes and isn't really one cohesive novel with a beginning, a middle and an end.  Rather it captures individual moments in the family's life and how they deal with those situations are really funny.  One such story is the one where the girls have to dust (they have chores!) and they complain about how much they hate dusting.  Their mother decides to make a game of it and hides buttons, and as the girls dust, they are supposed to try and find the buttons.  It's a cute game and one I think I may have my kids try when I want them to mop the floor or something.  It has such a sense of good clean fun and the adventures and misadventures of the girls are wonderful to read about.

This would be a great read aloud book with your child, if he or she can't read well enough yet.