Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme

by Joan W. Blos Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

Overview

Eleven-year-old Rosey Sachs is worried about her school writing assignment. How can she write anything interesting about her ordinary life in Brooklyn? "I was born in 1896 and my hair is brown," she writes. "As these two things are also true for just about everyone in the class, they are not very interesting." A poem might have made her neighborhood sound a little more exciting, but to Rosey's dismay, she quickly discovers that Brooklyn doesn't rhyme with anything. But the plucky young girl keeps plugging away. Soon she realizes that the most wonderful things about Brooklyn have been right around her all along. In her loving aunts and uncles, the unfortunately named Itzy Carnitzky, her immigrant parents and the friends who pass through her small house, Rosey finds the best and most interesting materials for her assignment. With gently humor and poignant detail, Joan W. Blos paints a heartwarming picture of Jewish life in New York in the years before World War I. The winner of both the Newbery Award and the American Book Award, Blos is the acclaimed author of many historical fictions for young people.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Rosey Sachs's beloved sixth-grade teacher believes that a way to gain self-knowlege and respect is to write about oneself. So, Rosey embarks on a narrative about who she is (poetry won't work because ``Brooklyn doesn't rhyme''), relating, almost journal style, stories of her Jewish-Polish-Austrian immigrant family and their friends and neighbors. Her descriptions of her life in the early 1900s are tender and, in the way of children raised in bygone times, naive, although she does touch on the enormous poverty of some of the people she knows. She also mentions how hard it must be for her parents, who left behind so many loved ones. Moving to a new house, the marriage of a favorite uncle, helping to reunite a newly emigrated woman with her husband, getting used to having a telephone, and working towards equal rights for workers and women are all discussed. Knitting together the strands of her tale is the love Rosey's family has for one another and a strong sense of community. However, time does not run through the book in a strictly linear fashion, making it a bit difficult to keep certain facts straight. Still, this gentle remembrance will make a fine read-aloud.-Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171495275
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	04/10/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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