A House of Tailors
Patricia Reilly Giff
Giff, Patricia R. 2004. A House of Tailors. Read by Blair Brown. New York: Random House, Inc. ISBN: 1400094917.
The midst of the Franco-Prussion War is no place for a 13 year old German girl, but that is exactly where Dina Kirk finds herself. Based loosely on the author’s great grandmother, Giff creates a story that makes Dina’s memory live on. Accused of being a spy for the French, Dina must take her sister’s place on a boat to America to her Uncle’s house in Brooklyn. Dina and her family are tailors and seamstresses and Dina, while good, does not care for sewing. On arrival in Brooklyn, she finds herself having to do just that in order to help earn her keep (and to earn money to go home). Fighting sewing all the way, Dina soon has bigger problems to work through as smallpox and a fire threaten to destroy everything she has begrudgingly come to accept as her home and family. When the decision is made to send her home, Dina realizes that while she wants to go home, she can’t, she is home. Overcoming her grudges and learning to love her new life, Dina finds friends, a boyfriend, Johann, and a family to go through the rest of her new life with.
The characters in this story are vibrant and real. Their emotions are as transparent as if they were standing in the room. Dina is an easily identifiable character, she embodies all the aspects of a 13 year old girl that are unchanging over time. She is forthright, stubborn, loving, and impetuous. Her mother, sister, and brother embody all the aspects of a tightknit family, and her relatives in Brooklyn are the typical immigrant family, working hard while barely making ends meet. Their stories are realistic and easy to relate to, despite their being 140 years apart.
The story reads like an adventure story. It has action and peril, love and understanding. It is presented in a way that is easy to understand and easy to infer from. The plot is simple and not overwhelmed by details, the story flows from idea to idea with ease. It is realistic for the time period and the descriptions of the smallpox and fires are very real and can be imagined in the mind’s eye with little trouble at all. The setting of this story takes place in two places. First is Germany, with Dina’s house on the Rhein River. The descriptions of the homes, streets, and people are based on stories and research that the author received from first and second hand individuals. The same can be said for the setting in Brooklyn, tenement houses were scary places to live and Giff represents them like she had lived there herself.
The themes of this story are universal but at times might be hard to understand as most children these days do not understand the trials of European countries and the want to come to America. Immigration and living conditions have changed tremendously since the timeframe of the book. The one theme that can resonate strongly with readers is family. Dina has two family’s that are oceans apart and she wants to be with both of them. She ultimately has to make a decision that is right for her. Choosing her new family is one of the hardest decisions she has to make in her young life, but it is accepted unconditionally by all parties.
Listening to this book as an audiobook led to two very different styles of the book. Giff’s words and Brown’s voice bring together a very powerful narrative. Giff writes with a very strong sense of purpose and her narrative’s speak to the reader in a very colorful format. Combining the words with the voice of Brown, leads to a very interesting experience. Brown has a very strong melodious voice that embraces the narrator and people she is portraying. At times, the German accent sounds forced but it helps to differentiate the characters from the narrative. She does capture the speech of the era though, and it makes for an easy listening experience. Her reading speed is almost metronomic and her inflections correspond to the action in the book.
The author based this book on her own great-grandmother so her facts and fiction are closely aligned. At the end of the audiobook, the author reads the afterward and authors note. The audiobook does not include any sources or recommended reading. Since the book is a tribute to her great-grandmother who was the character of Dina, it can be inferred that she has her facts correct and that she just fictionalized the characters.
The audiobook won the ALSC Notable Children’s Recording Award. The book itself won the 2005 Maine Student Book Master List. Reviews are wide and diverse for the book. These reviews are based on the paperback edition of the book.
School Library Journal
“This novel is rich with believable, endearing characters as well as excitement and emotion. Dina, 13, can't wait to leave Germany and begin her new life in America with Mama's rich brother and his family. She longs to finally escape the drudgery of her mother's sewing shop, even though she is often reminded, "As much as you hate sewing, Dina, that's how much the needle and thread love you." As soon as she arrives at the cramped, five-story walk-up, however, she knows that she has entered a house of tailors, "no different from my own, except that it was poorer." Though she helps Aunt Barbara with the house and baby Maria, Uncle Lucas views her as a burden. She has no choice but to sew for him, her only consolation being the 40 cents he will give her each day toward her passage home. Gradually, Dina grows to love her new family, meets another "greenhorn" with whom she can reminisce and trade new American words, and becomes a promising hat and dressmaker. She also nurses Barbara and Maria through smallpox and carries the child to safety during a devastating fire. Readers get a glimpse into life in Brooklyn in the 1870s, especially the dreaded Health Department inspections during the epidemic. Sprinkled with letters from home, the story captures the universal immigrant dilemma, "we would always have a longing to go back, and a longing to stay."–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools
Booklist
“In 1870, 13-year-old Dina is forced to flee Germany after being mistaken for a spy, and she takes her sister's place on a ship to America, where she will live with Uncle, his young wife, Barbara, and baby Marie. After arriving, Dina finds herself in Brooklyn, sleeping in a stifling closet. Worst of all, she must earn her room and board by sewing. Although talented, Dina despises the work, but sewing is part of Uncle's plan to improve their situation, so Dina finds herself either at the machine or doing the endless work of a tenement life. There are many books about immigrants in the U.S; the strengths of this one are its profuse details and its cranky heroine. And a heroine Dina is, sometimes exaggeratedly so, as when she saves both Barbara and Marie from a fire. Yet, Dina is not a stock character; she's a real child, who works hard, literally and figuratively, to find her way. When she realizes that designing dresses is something she loves, readers will cheer her perseverance, and the happy ending seems well deserved.” Ilene Cooper
Books similar to House of Tailors that readers might like are: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, and Lord of Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence. Activities that might be good for classrooms or reading groups center around family. Children have a grandparent whether they know them or not. Provided that there would not prove too much consternation, children could write a short story about an event in their recent ancestors lives. Another project could involve sewing since that is the focus of the book. Using safer instruments students could knit, crochet, sew, or macramé a project.
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