Help me remember a children's book from long ago...

September 20, 2007 7:55 AM

Trying to remember a particular children's book. I remember two details (and keep in mind that I might be conflating two different books). I think it was set in New York, in an Orthodox Jewish family, in the past century. One of the characters (I think a girl) likes to buy a pretzel stick and lick the salt off first. And the house rule for dinner was: eat veg first, then rice, then meat, then dessert. If you didn't finish one course, you didn't get the next. Any thoughts on what this book(s) could be?
posted by Ollie to media & arts (6 comments total)

All of a Kind Family.
posted by redfoxtail at 8:02 AM on September 20, 2007

Yes, I think that is it! (Or at least one of the books of I'm thinking of.) Thanks.
posted by Ollie at 8:11 AM on September 20, 2007

I'm fairly certain it's the same book series for both tales. It's a series of sisters, and the one I most identified with was the one who wouldn't eat one of the courses of food - so was pained to watch her sisters eat dessert. The pretzel eating was detailed in the part about how each sister spent her allowance on penny candy. I loved them as a child and recently found them again at a used book store.
posted by librarianamy at 9:41 AM on September 20, 2007

Oh how I loved these books! I need to look them up again. One of my favorite stories was about Gertie learning to tell time.
posted by mdiskin at 10:24 AM on September 20, 2007

Definitely All of Kind Family.

My favourite episode was the one in which one girl secretly borrowed her sister's white dress, and got tea spilled on it while rumpussing at a party. She dipped the entire thing in tea and it turned ecru. The sister liked the dress better that way and so the day was saved. I remembered this and I've often tea'd white things to give them new life.
posted by orange swan at 11:29 AM on September 20, 2007

Yes, the tea-dying! I was trying to remember that one too. How funny that all three episodes I remember are from the same series. Thanks all.
posted by Ollie at 11:58 AM on September 20, 2007