Five stories

Successive generations of children in the same Lower East Side tenement map out a common immigrant experience in New York City. Using the term stories in both senses of the word, Weinstein opens with a cutaway view of the building that shows one of the five families on each floor. She then introduces Jenny Epstein, her actual grandmother, who in 1914 moved with her Russian Jewish family into the building, where they lived above a pickle store. Four fictive young recent arrivals follow from Italy (1932), the Dominican Republic (1965), Puerto Rico (1989), and China ("Today"). The text offers mere snapshots, too short to include more than a few common concerns or details of daily life (though to link the generations, each child mentions knowing the inhabitant of the floor below). But the illustrations are filled with lavish period details, both of domestic furnishings inside and dress, cars, and changing shop signs outside. "Hosiery" becomes "Sportswear," "Latticini" makes way for "Bodega," Chinese characters appear, and other businesses come and go--except for the pickle place, which remains as a visual anchor while adding mango, okra, and kimchi to its advertised wares by the end. Weinstein also tracks a growing diversity of people as well as food, while in her afterword she properly acknowledges that her five families can only suggest how rich the community's real racial and cultural mix is. Tantalizing glimpses of a diverse neighborhood's cultures and origins, with insight into the commonality that underlies them. (Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.