Sydney Taylor’s More All-of-a-Kind Family (1954)
Dell Publishing, 1967

The third volume in Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family series is everything that is promised in the title: More.

More years for the children, who now range in age as follows: Ella, 15; Henriette (Henny), 13; Sarah, 11; Charlotte, 9; Gertie, 7; and Charlie, 3.

More about Jewish culture: the Saturday Sabbath routine, playing with the dredel, Yom Kippur, and synagogue.

More scrapes for Henny and more growing up for Ella.

And more romance. (Technically, that’s for another family member, but it has a pleasant overflow into the children’s lives.)

More excitement too. The family goes to Rockaway Beach to avoid infection during an outbreak of infantile paralysis (the epidemic of 1916 has the family understandably concerned), which means more change, more adjustments.

“It was a big, important-looking building, altogether different from papa’s tiny synagogue on the East Side. In the city only Papa went on Fridays to pray, before the evening meal. Here Papa could do that, too, but after supper, everybody went to temple – men, women, and children. And they all sat together!”

And, of course, more family. It’s a solid follow-up, all-of-a-kind fashion.

Have you read a satisfying follow-up lately?