Trying to find a book I read as a kid in the 80's

January 28, 2015 4:20 PM

Hi all! My family used to buy me paperback children's books back in the 80's like the Great Brain stories, Henry Huggins/Ramona series or How To Eat Fried Worms; stuff in that sort of vein. I recall Dell Yearling being one of the common publishers. But there's one series that I only half remember that I'd love to read again.

The basic premise was of a turn of a century'ish family living in a brownstone, doing what they could do to get by. The stories centered around one of the daughters of the family, who was probably about 10 years of age. I believe I had two books from this series, roughly the same length as your standard Ramona book, and I recall that there was one book that I didn't have.

One of the books had a subplot where the girl somehow came across a mission-type place that helped poor people and she saw a beautiful new doll that was destined for a little girl less fortunate than her. She really wanted the doll but didn't look the part, so she somehow obtained scissors and made some holes in her stockings so that she could look poor and get the doll. She was then able to obtain the doll, but on her way home realized that she would have to explain the presence of the doll and the holes in her stockings to her mom or dad.

I would have read this in the early to mid 1980's, in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA.

Does this ring a bell at all?

posted by starscream to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: That sounds like the All of a Kind Family series, by Sydney Taylor, and this bit from All of a Kind Family Downtown looks like it.
posted by songs about trains at 4:29 PM on January 28, 2015 [8 favorites]

That definitely rings a bell. I was just thinking that it was All-of-a-Kind family as well. I think songs about trains has it!
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 4:31 PM on January 28, 2015

Songs about trains beat me to it. I read that bit to my daughter a couple of years ago.
posted by SobaFett at 4:32 PM on January 28, 2015

Response by poster: That's gotta be it! I thought there was a Jewsish immigrant angle in there too, but I wasn't 100% certain.

Thank you so much, songs about trains, Beethoven's Sith & SobaFett! <3
posted by starscream at 4:41 PM on January 28, 2015

There's a scene in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in which Francie goes to a Christmas event hosted by a local church for the poor kids in the neighborhood. They all get something, but a rich woman and her daughter bring out a doll earmarked for a girl named Mary. There are lots of girls with the name but none of them want to be singled out or condescended to for being poor. Francie desperately wants it, (thinks that she)lies , and has to run a gantlet of the other kids hissing "beggar" as she goes back to her seat.
posted by brujita at 5:42 PM on January 28, 2015

Now that the question has been answered, I hope the mods won't mind if I add my thanks for this AskMe. Buried deep in my brain was a kid-memory of a story about a little girl who doesn't want to be the jester in the school play, but her family encourages her and says she'll have way more fun than the other kids. And of course she just nails the performance. I even remembered the colors of her costume and that her little sister had to sit on a pile of coats so she could see the play. Something about starscream's description sounded familiar, I searched in the book for the word "jester" and there it was. Thank you, starscream and songs about trains! It was delightful to reread it after all these years.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 9:25 AM on January 30, 2015

Response by poster: Hooray! I'm so so so so happy to have helped, however so slightly, Orange Dinosaur Slide <3
posted by starscream at 7:09 PM on January 30, 2015 [1 favorite]