A series of books about a Jewish family in the 1910s. It tells the story of five young girls and the everyday trials, tribulations and triumphs of being poor in money, but rich in spirit and family strength.
Contains examples of:
- Assumed Win: In Uptown, when Sarah loses a coveted History Prize to another girl in her graduating class.
- Beach Chapter
- Book Dumb: Henny
- Denied Food as Punishment: Middle child Sarah refuses to eat her rice soup at lunch and is denied anything else until she does.
- Five Girl Band:
- Hair of Gold: Henny, Sarah, Gertie, and little Charlie.
- Ill Girl: Sarah; Ella mentions her being prone to sore throats, the narrative states that she spends more time in the sick room than her sisters and she's the first one of the sisters to catch Scarlet Fever. Henny is the inverse of this trope, as she can't even catch the disease when she tries.
- Informed Judaism: Averted hard. The narrative discusses Jewish holidays and traditions, and Yiddish dialogue is peppered throughout the story (specifically in the market trip chapter).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Henny, full stop
- Limited Wardrobe: In the first book, the girls are rarely seen wearing anything other than their dark blue dresses and white aprons.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Well, these books were written in the 1950s.
- No Name Given: We never do learn Mama and Papa's given names.
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit
- Only One Name: ...or the family's last name.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Charlotte, Ella and their parents
- Parental Marriage Veto: Charlie's parents forbade him from marrying the love of his life, who walked away in sadness. In anger, he left his home, his old life and even his old name Herbert Charles Grahm. But in the end, he and his sweetheart are happily reunited and she turns out to be the girls' favorite librarian, Kathy Allen.
- Smitten Preteen Girl: Ella's crush on Charlie
- Wild Teen Party: Henny goes to one of these in All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown. Of course, this being 1917, it's pretty tame.
- World War I: All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown. Ella's beau Jules even goes to fight in the war, luckily he makes it back safe and sound.
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