My son knows that I love visiting practically every bookstore that I encounter. Recently, we walked by a progressively-oriented shop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where I picked up a featured children’s book. I am habitually not as careful as I should be when picking up books and I regularly have to change the wording and themes in the stories as I discover that they are often inappropriate for children. So, I was absolutely shocked when I read Ellen Weinstein’s inspiring new book, Five Stories, to my son. This is a model children’s book that presents a truly uplifting American story, free of underhanded attempts to introduce left-of-center biases and themes that are so popular in the publishing industry today.
Five Stories presents five unique American stories, from five different cultures, in five different decades, in a five-story building on the Lower East Side of New York. The family vignettes begin with a Jewish family in 1914, continue with an Italian family in 1932 along with a Dominican family in 1965, and eventually conclude with a Puerto Rican family in 1989 and a Chinese family in the present era. As opposed to being filled with progressive narratives of harm based on race and ethnicity, each family story showcases the fact they came to the United States to escape problematic places where people were not free and did not have the ability to realize their ambitions. The book tells stories of entrepreneurship and grit, a desire to move up and improve lives, and the centrality of family—messages far too uncommon in in children’s books today.
In the Dominican family story, the author writes that “Jose and his family moved to New York from the Dominican Republic, where people were fighting to build a democracy for the country.” For the Chinese family, they came to New York to find “better paying jobs and more opportunities for Wei and his sister.” As such, we learn about how each family made their lives better here, such as the Dominican family opening up a community bodega or the Puerto Rican family creating a third space—a café which became “a gathering place. . . filled with local poets, taxi drivers, and neighbors. . . no one ever left feeling hungry or lonely.”
Beyond familial safety and upward mobility, in each family story, we see the family strive to be more American and acculturate into communal norms. In the Jewish family, the author notes that “every night, Jenny’s family practiced English together. . . she fell asleep dreaming about a day when her English would be good enough for her to be less shy in school.” Meanwhile in the Chinese family, the little boy, Wei, calls his grandparents in China telling them “about his favorite new foods (empanadas) and impresses them with a few words in Spanish.” We later see him being active in the local YMCA.
None of this is to suggest that individual traditions do not matter in Five Stories. A reader sees the Asian family participate in the Lunar New Year or the Puerto Rican family listening to “hip-hop music. . . mingled with beats of salsa.” Traditions and family histories are appreciated and respected, but they are not isolated. The book beautifully showcases a neighborhood growing over time, with the families profiled moving up in society, layers of culture accreting and being deeply appreciated. The book ends with the Chinese family finding an old toy from the Jewish family over a century ago, and the toy becomes a treasured reminder of the past families who came to America and contributed to its dynamic, multi-cultural fabric.
The book refreshingly does not mention harm or injustices in America. Racial and ethnic differences are celebrated for their particular contributions to civil society. Shared American holidays are front and center with a beautifully illustrated center spread of the Italian family on the roof of the building with their neighbors to celebrate the Fourth of July. The reader sees fireworks over the Empire State building, and the author shows the Italian father taking great pride in having helped build the monument.
Five Stories is a remarkable book that should be celebrated because it is focuses on creating community for all. The book tries to connect with all readers and presents a far broader and powerful American story by showing how waves of immigrants built our nation and came to the United States for better lives and opportunity. Unlike so many schools, which have been corrupted by balkanizing diversity and inclusion programs, focus on differences along with narratives of power and harm, and frequently segregate students by race and ethnicity, Five Stories does just the opposite. Differences are appreciated, and they become part of a broader narrative of shared American values, hopes, and dreams.
