One of a Kind
The Life of Sydney Taylor
by Richard Michelson
Pub Date 13 Feb 2024
Astra Publishing House |Calkins Creek
Biographies & Memoirs| Children's Nonfiction


Astra Books and Netgalley provided me with a copy of One of a Kind for review:


In spite of having five sisters who dressed alike, Sarah Brenner was always one-of-a-kind. In New York's impoverished Lower East Side, Sarah enjoyed going to the library, celebrating holidays with family, and taking free dance classes. Yet she was equally aware that many things were unfair in the world, starting with women's inability to vote, to girls' lack of equality at school, or their expulsion from Europe because their parents were Jewish. It was always obvious to her that things weren't fair, whether it was the fact that women couldn't vote, the way girls were treated at school, or the fact that their parents had to leave Europe because they were Jewish.


Growing up, she became an actress and a dancer, but she never forgot the importance of fighting injustice, whether it was anti-Semitism at work or low wages. She decided to write a unique children’s book when her daughter complained that there weren’t any books about Jewish children like her.


I give One of a Kind five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Informative and beautifully illustrated! I knew a little about Sydney Taylor, but I was eager to learn more. It was a little choppy at times and I'm not always sure that niche author biographies appeal to children the way they appeal to adult librarians, but it will be a good addition to my personal collection of female author picturebook biographies.

I absolutely love One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor by Richard Michelson! I grew up with the All-of-a-Kind Family books and loved the book inspired by the Author who wrote them. The book is beautifully written and illustrated, using first hand hand facts from Sydney Taylor’s family. I think One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor by Richard Michelson would be perfect to read for any time, at any age. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read this book. My review is also on Goodreads.

I received an ARC of this children's book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful book. The story is amazing!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

The All of a Kind Family books were some of my favorites growing up. I even read an (adult) biography about Sydney Taylor a few years ago so the content was not a surprise to me.

The book is definitely a brief and colorful biography of Taylor, who longed for equal rights for disenfranchised communities. Her daughter encouraged her to write books about growing up a a young Jewish woman with four sisters and a brother on the Lower East Side of New York since there weren’t many books for children with Jewish characters.

I enjoyed the book but it was too short 😀

We just finished reading All of a Kind Family in our homeschool last month, so when I saw a biography of the author, I knew I had to read it. Written in a picture book format, this story of Sydney Taylor explores her life and inspiration for her work. From growing up in a poor Jewish family on the Lower East Side, to her marriage and motherhood, to her activist background, Taylor knew she was destined to make a difference in the world. And her own unique perspective clearly shines through the legacy she left behind.

This biography was a bit choppy for me. The story tended to skip around a little; it almost felt frantic. And it was dry. Topics were touched upon without a whole lot of feeling. While the book briefly mentions Taylor's writing, that's what drew me to know more about her work. And it seemed to have only a short, quick mention. Although it's a picture book, I just felt it would have been written with more enthusiasm. Really, this is one that just left me feeling like it was lacking.

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Astra Publishing House / Calkins Creek and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

I enjoyed learning about Sydney Taylor through this book, I didn’t know her before reading this, but I was really interested to learn about her and now I do want to read her books. She grew up in a time when women still didn’t have many options of what to do but she never let that stop her.

The way it was written to me felt a little strange to me as it skipped through very quickly from her being one age to another and there wasn’t much of a transition between doing that and I personally found it a little confusing as to how old she was and what era we were in within her life. Though it didn’t effect my learning about her or enjoying it, but it was just something I struggled with whilst reading.

I did like learning about this young Jewish girl who wanted to ensure she could get as many opportunities in her life as possible, so she changed her name to what she deemed a more masculine name. She eventually got to publish the stories she’d always told her daughter and shared with the world her story of being a young Jewish girl.

I really did enjoy learning about her, I loved all all the extra facts we got at the end, it comes with wonderful illustrations that I enjoyed looking at throughout the book. I think this would go perfect to include if you are reading her book series, you’ll get to learn so much more about her and her life.

This book is for those of us who loved the “all of a kind family” series of books that came out in the 1950s. When I was in elementary school I foud this series, and loved them. I didn’t realize at the time, that these were the first children’s books written about Jewish families.
In fact, the stories of the All of a Kind Family were originally written for the authors daughter, when she asked why there weren’t more stories about Jewish children. She then tried to get them published, but no one was interested. Then in 1950, a publisher actually held a contest to find unpublished children’s book, and the first book in the series won.
This picture book about Sydney Taylor’s life shows where her influence for her stories came from, her own life, and where her life went when she grew up. There is even a bit of information at the end of the book about what happened with her life.
This brought me back to my memories of loving the series, so I was glad that someone has finally written about it, and have it drawn in much the same style as the books were drawn.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is being published on the 13th of February 2024.

Living in the Midwest had never heard of Sydney Taylor this book does a nice job of explaining who she was and her beliefs. The illustrations are wonderful and add to the story perfectly. I love that this story comes full circle with the author and I am so glad to learn about this amazing woman!

The formatting was a bit off because I read it on my Kindle Fire, but otherwise, this was a charming picture book biography of Sydney Taylor, the writer of the classic All of a Kind Family books. Born Sarah Brenner, she soon realizes that there are different rules for men and women, so she changes her name to the masculine-sounding Sydney. It also details her marriage and how she came to write the first All of a Kind Family novel. The book is age-appropriate, and I appreciated the author's dedication to June Cummins, who wrote Taylor's first biography five years ago but had died of ALS and didn't see its publication. I'd recommend this book be read with the original AOAK books so families can better understand how/why the books came to be. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Herein lies the tale of Sydney Taylor, who became a children’s book author after winning a national contest in 1950. Sydney was born Sarah Brenner to a Jewish family in New York City in 1908. When she grew up and had a daughter of her own, the latter would beg her to write down the stories of her childhood. Taylor was one of the first children’s authors to write about Jewish families.

Growing up, Sarah realized that in order to be taken seriously or have a chance at being published, she’d have to write under a more masculine pen name, and thus “Sydney” was born. I appreciate the author of this book highlighting the life of Sydney Taylor and how she came to be well-known. I’m a big fan of books that illustrate that women are just as smart as men.

This is suitable for young readers and has cute illustrations to follow along with the story. It isn’t a comprehensive biography, by any means, but it’s a good conversation-starter about what life was like for girls and women in the early 1900s.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House/Calkins Creek for an eARC in exchange for my unbiased feedback.

I loved the idea of reading about the author of some of my favorite children's books. I have a five year old granddaughter and this would be perfect to read to her before or during the time she reads the All-of-A-Kind Family books. I do wish that it was an entire biography for adults, but for what it is, it fills a niche and can serve as the basis for much discussion in a family. The illustrations are charming and a child will enjoy turning the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It helps bring the stories of the past alive.

I was so looking forward to this book — I loved Taylor’s All of a Kind series and read them over and over as a child. However, I was fairly disappointed in it. I was aware that it was a children’s book — rated for 7 - 10 year olds — but I had just finished reviewing Lois Lowry’s new book (Tree. Table. Book.) which was rated for 8-12 and it had so much more depth and richness. I would say that One of a Kind is more of a 5-7 year old book.

The other problem is that is really didn’t say anything of interest. If you hadn’t already read Taylor’s books, this book would not have gotten you excited to read them. The book claims to be a mini biography — emphasizing her accomplishments — but the accomplishments are understated and without additional context will mean nothing to a child reading about it.

I did enjoy reading that she danced with Martha Graham! That was new information.

I’m sorry I did not like this more. I will not be putting on my blog or in Goodreads as I only publish favorable reviews.