Customer Reviews

Across the Alley

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This beautiful book is perfect for grandparents to enjoy with their grandchildren. Who else could fondly recall the alleys, stoops, and apartment houses where children could lean out of bedroom windows to speak with a friend across the way? References to Sandy Koufax, Satchel Page, Jascha Heifetz, and the Negro Leagues help set the time and place. Artist E.B.Lewis' grainy, sensitive watercolor paintings make this story of breaking stereotypes, irresistible. Like the engaging narrative, the paintings leave a lot of space for the reader to imagine the details. Lewis' free brush strokes are rich and airy at the same time and the images of people are warmly represented. There's a charming, smiling grandpa wearing his yarmulke, full of hope that his grandson, Abe, will be a great violinist. Grandpa's other expectation is that Willy, the African-American boy from across the alley will be a future baseball player in the Negro Leagues. Grandpa turns out to be very wrong, and as stereotypes are broken, he accepts reality with grace.
The paintings romanticize the tree lined blocks of Brooklyn brownstones fifty summers ago, when kids played stickball in the street, and neighbors like Willy and Abe could walk to Temple, or to the corner lot to play baseball. This book is a gem, highly recommended for secular and Jewish schools and all public libraries. It is an excellent example of both an intergenerational and a multi-cultural picture book at its best.
For ages 6-10, and a grandparent.
Reviewed by Naomi Morse

Abe is a Jewish boy whose grandfather wants him to play the violin like Jascha Heifetz. Willie is an African-American boy whose father wants him to play baseball like Satchel Paige. The boys enjoy a secret friendship at night across the alleyway between their bedroom windows but it turns out that they are both more successful when they switch hobbies. When their secret is discovered, it is Willie who performs in the recital at the synagogue and Abe who takes the pitching mound at the baseball game. This lovely story of friendship in post-World War II Brooklyn, New York is complemented by the beautiful illustrations by Caldecott and Coretta Scott King award winner, E.B. Lewis.

The book is well-written and the illustrations (watercolor images) are good, too. The text works well with the images, but I couldn't really follow the story by just looking at the pictures. There are 17 scenes in this book, some of which are two pages wide.

The story is about a white kid and a black kid that live across an alley from each other. One kid has a grandfather who is skilled with a violin and the other kid has a father who is good with a baseball. Each kid teaches the other to excel in the skill their relative has taught them. In the beginning of the story the boys have to be friends in secret because the neighborhood did not believe in the mixing of races. But by the end of the story the boys are able to be best of friends so all could see. What a nice ending!

I think some kids will like this book a lot. But I think some kids will misunderstand it. I'm curious why the author makes it an issue that the white kid was Jewish. He never mentioned the black kid's faith. Were the kids supposed to stay apart because they had different religions or because their skin color was different? I would have liked the book better if it had left religion out of the story. 4 stars!

My son's 4 year old daycare class goes to the library each Tuesday. Generally he brings home books about trucks, animals, weather, and bugs. Today he came home with "Across the Alley". Talk about a book full of fun. I got to teach my 4 year old son about Negros, Jews, Nazis, and even what broken fingers are.

"Why did the Nazis break fingers?" my son asked me. Always a question I like to answer before bedtime. Give me a damn break. This isn't a good I would lump in with the five shelves of kids books that we already own.

On a side note, I plan on reading my son "War and Peace" next week.