Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York 1880-1924

In a stunning nonfiction debut, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson focuses on five immigrants' stories to reveal the triumphs and hardships of early 1900s immigrant life in New York.

Acclaimed author Hopkinson recounts the lives of five immigrants to New York's Lower East Side through oral histories and engaging narrative. We hear Romanian-born Marcus Ravage's disappointment when his aunt pushes him outside to peddle chocolates on the street. And about the pickle cart lady who stored her pickles in a rat-infested basement. We read Rose Cohen's terrifying account of living through the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and of Pauline Newman's struggles to learn English. But through it all, each one of these kids keeps working, keeps hoping, to achieve their own American dream.

Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Orchard Books (NY)
Published: 10/01/2003
Pages: 134
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.50h x 8.30w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780439375900
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.8
Point Value: 4
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 74048 / Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York 1880-1924


Award: James Madison Book - Honor Book
Award: Sydney Taylor Book Award - Notable
Award: Jane Addams Children's Book Award - Honor Book
Award: Orbis Pictus Award - Honor Book


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 09/15/2003 pg. 1175
BookPage 10/01/2003 pg. 28
Booklist 11/01/2003 pg. 492
Publishers Weekly 12/01/2003 pg. 58
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2004 pg. 101
School Library Journal 12/01/2003 pg. 169
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2004 pg. 193
New York Times 12/21/2003 pg. 16
Booklist Ed Choice Youth 01/01/2004 pg. 779
Multicultural Review 03/01/2004 pg. 99
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2003 pg. 125 - Superior,Well Above Average
Voice of Youth Advocates 06/01/2004 pg. 150
School Library Journal 10/01/2004 pg. 31
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2004 pg. 125 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Deborah Hopkinson is the acclaimed author of over 40 award-winning books, including Shutting Out the Sky, an NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book and a Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book; Up Before Daybreak, a Carter G. Woodson Honor Award winner; Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist and Sibert Honor Book; Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and Orbis Pictus Recommended title; Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific; D-Day: The World War II Invasion that Changed History; Sydney Taylor Notable Book We Had to be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport; and We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance. Deborah lives with her family near Portland, Oregon.