Jews do not come out looking well in this book. The hero, Dave, is abandoned by his family and placed in the Hebrew Home for Boys, run by a sadistic man who steals children's valuable keepsakes. Dave manages to escape at night and stumbles upon the Harlem Renaissance; he becomes friends with a wealthy black girl and an older Jewish man, a self-described gonif who tells phony fortunes.

Eventually Dave realizes that his family did the best they could for him. His brother, taken in by an uncle, is not tough enough to cope with the HHB; his aunts, who are boarders in a family's small apartment, really have no room for him, but do visit him; his step-mother truly cannot afford to keep him. Dave realizes that the other elevenses at the Home are wonderful friends. The art teacher goes out of his way to encourage Dave's talent.

The happy resolution requires a deus ex machina. This is always a bad sign, usually meaning that in reality there is no good resolution.

Life in the orphanage is based on the experiences of the author's father, who lived in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum; Art Buchwald also lived there. As the author says in an Afterword, the conditions at the Asylum were not as bad as those she makes up. 2003 nominee for Nutmeg Children's Book Award. ( )

Dave is always up to mischief and when his father dies his struggling relatives choose to take in his quiet older brother and send Dave to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he makes some surprising friendships and sneaks out to enjoy the high society of Harlem. This is the best Levine since Ella Enchanted, loosely based on the author's father's childhood. There are many rather unbelievable events, such as an orphan making a connection with an heiress, but if the reader was going to believe these events, they happen in exactly the way they would. Would recommend to middle grade readers and readers fond of orphan tales. ( )

This underappreciated book had the misfortune to be published same year as the Newbery award winning Bud, Not Buddy. I guess there is only so much room each year in the literary world for children's books about orphans and jazz bands. This one is a wonderful Harlem Renaissance fairy tale adventure, highly recommended. ( )

Dave is put in a home for Jewish orphans. At the school there are lots of bullies and Dave makes strong bonds with the other boys his age. My favorite parts of the book are where he sneaks out at night and attends salons and parties that are part of the Harlem Renaissance. ( )