Customer Reviews

One-Way to Ansonia

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

 

 

I read this book as a kid, and remembered liking it enough to re-read it several times. I recently found it on a library discard pile and re-read it again, as an adult. I don't know much about the history of the period in question - the turn of the century in New York City - but it reads as a viable piece of historical fiction. Although the characters are painted in rather broad strokes, this is a child's book after all, with a cast of roughly 20 characters who feature in the story around the central figure of Rose.

Children are pretty smart at sniffing out lies made by adults, and I think perhaps why I enjoyed this book so much as a kid was because it didn't necessarily have a pat and happy ending like so many books written for this age group. I didn't give it five stars because (and only because) I've read kids' books with more three dimensional characters, so I know it can be done, even with the shorter word count and less complicated plots that abound in children's fiction.