67. Five Stories

Five Stories. Ellen Weinstein. 2024. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book for older readers]

First sentence: Buildings are like people: each one has a story. This building is over a hundred years old and holds thousands of stories about the people who have lived here on New York's Lower East Side. Lots of families have come to the Lower East  Side from different parts of the world and made it their home. And though their reasons for being here are different, they still share many of the same questions, fears, hopes, and dreams. And each generation contributes tastes, stories, and sounds to the neighborhood.

Premise/plot: Five Stories tells the story of five immigrant families--five decades/generations, five cultures, one apartment building in one neighborhood. The Epsteins (1914), The Cozzis (1932), The Martes (1965), The Torresses (1989), and The Yes (present day). Each story has a child at the center: Jenny Epstein, Anna Cozzi, Jose Marte, Maria Torres, and Wei Yei. Their narratives give a slice of life view to their times and culture. There are plenty of similarities--for example--though the means of communication with loved ones change, all families want to hold onto and remember the loved ones left behind when they immigrated.  

My thoughts: This is a picture book for older readers. Definitely a good fit for elementary school students. I don't think it would be as good a fit for younger readers. I definitely liked this one. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE if this idea had been a chapter book so we could follow the families more--longer. The concept was good. The author's note reveals she is a descendant of Jenny Epstein.

© 2024 Becky Laney of Young Readers