Children’s books – She Reads Novels

I’m ashamed to say I had never come across this classic American children’s novel until Constance of Staircase Wit recommended it when I commented on one of her reviews that I would like to read more about life on New York’s Lower East Side. Constance kindly sent me a copy, which I have now read and enjoyed!

First published in 1951, the book follows five young sisters through a year of their childhood in 1912. Ella, at twelve, is the oldest and four-year-old Gertie is the youngest, with Henny (Henrietta), Sarah and Charlotte in between. They are known as an ‘all-of-a-kind family’ due to being all girls – or, as the librarian refers to them, a ‘step-and-stairs family’ because of their evenly spaced ages. They live in an apartment on the Lower East Side and Papa runs a junk shop nearby while Mama looks after the children and their home.

In the first chapter, Sarah is upset because a friend has borrowed her library book and lost it. She’s sure she’ll be in big trouble and banned from going to the library ever again. However, the librarian, Miss Allen, is sympathetic and, knowing that the family would be offended by charity, she agrees to let Sarah pay for the book one penny a week. Miss Allen becomes a good friend to the girls after this and we meet her again later in the book, but meanwhile there are lots of other adventures to be had – including making a fun game from dusting the apartment, going to the market with Mama, and getting lost at Coney Island.

This is such a charming book, I’m sure I would have loved it as a child. The five girls are all very endearing and Taylor gives them all individual personalities of their own. Ella, being nearly a teenager, is the most mature of the sisters and is beginning to form romantic attachments; ten-year-old Henny is independent and rebellious, while Sarah is more studious. The two youngest girls are less well developed, but Gertie, the baby of the family, looks up to Charlotte who is two years older and they have a particularly close relationship.

One of the most interesting things about this book is that the girls belong to a Jewish family, so we are given lots of descriptions of them preparing for Jewish holidays such as Purim and Passover (as well as celebrating the Fourth of July) – and because the girls are so young, Mama and Papa explain to them the meanings of each custom and tradition, which can be very helpful for non-Jewish readers! Not many of the books I remember reading as a child featured children who were anything other than Christian, so it’s good to know that this book existed even if I wasn’t aware of it.

This is a lovely book (and also the first in a series). Thanks to Constance for introducing me to it.

Historical fiction is my favourite genre, but that hasn’t always been the case. I only really started to read historical novels when I was in my late teens and at that age I was naturally drawn to books written for adults, which meant I missed out on most of the historical fiction available for younger readers.

I have been giving this a lot of thought and am surprised to find that I can only think of two historical fiction books I read as a child that were actually aimed at a young audience. The first is a book I remember reading at school: The Children of the New Forest, Frederick Marryat’s novel about four children orphaned during the English Civil War. It was published in 1847 and is thought to be one of the first historical novels written specifically for young readers. The only other book that has come to mind is Twist of Gold by Michael Morpurgo, the story of two children from Ireland who sail to America in search of their father during the Irish potato famine. I think I was about ten when I read it and all I can remember was that it made me cry!

Of course, just because I didn’t read a lot of historical fiction as a child doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of historical novels out there for children to read. Last week I read a great review by Yvonne of John Meade Falkner’s Moonfleet and I have found a whole list of other books for children and young adults at www.historicalnovels.info sorted by time period and location. I’m also aware that Rosemary Sutcliff wrote a lot of historical novels for children and although she’s not an author I’ve ever read, I do have one or two of her books on my shelf which I’m hoping to read soon.

Did you read any historical novels as a child or young adult? Which would you recommend? Do you think they can still be enjoyed by adult readers?