Discount Price: $6.50
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780553494167
ISBN number: 0553494163
Label: Yearling
Manufacturer: Yearling
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: July 10, 2007
Publishing house: Yearling
Age index: Ages 9-12
Release Date: July 10, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 198549
Studio: Yearling
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In 1892, nine-year-old Dom’s mother puts him on a ship leaving Italy, bound for America. He is a stowaway, traveling alone and with nothing of value except for a new pair of shoes from his mother. In the turbulent world of homeless children in Manhattan’s Five Points, Dom learns street smarts, and not only survives, but thrives by starting his own business. A vivid, fascinating story of an exceptional boy, based in part on the author’s grandfather.
From the Hardcover edition.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
You can't beat this story for a great Young Adult historical novel. The author, who is always good no matter what she pens, really gives the reader a very clear and evocative picture of just what life was like for immigrants arriving from various countries to Ellis Island and further into the streets of New York. Our young hero and budding entrepreneur, Dom from Naples, soon learns the hard way how to make his way in a tough poor part of the city, struggling to eat and having to hide his Jewish faith amongst Italian and Irish Catholics. Beaten, robbed, sleeping an a barrel in a filthy alley, Dom uses his head and his strong heart to soon become the King of Mulberry street. This is a precious and poignant novel that will leave you breathless and in appreciation of just how hard the times were then, and how very hard the immigrants had to work to make their way in the new world. I would recommend this to all adults and teenagers who just love a good story. It will also leave you very appreciative of the spoiled world we live in now.
Rated by buyers 
-
What would you do if you were stranded in a country where you didn't speak the language or know anyone? Well the King of Mulberry street is about an opportunistic kid who faces these as well as many challenges. This book was a good story but didn't really have too much suspense or action in it. I didn't have trouble putting it down but wouldn't rate is as poorly written. I can see how it could get young adult readers into the genre of immigrant fiction, but as an adult - it wasn't overly cheesy or unrealistic.
Rated by buyers -
Donna Jo Napoli's story of "The King of Mulberry Street" coaxes readers to put aside household chores & read 'straight through'. This is history that makes the pulse race, is honest in its ugliness yet carries seeds of hope.
Nine-year-old Beniamino's mother finagles his passage to America on a ship that carries him away from the security of a poor but close extended family & their epigrams. These 'charms' of his Nonna later become like beads of a rosary for the Jewish boy from Napoli.: "Chi tene mamma, nun chiagne" - - or - - "whoever has a mother doesn't cry" & "anyone who feeds me is like a father to me."
The first-ever pair of shoes given the boy on departure become another talisman in the months when he tries to escape the many pitfalls looming ahead. The shoes protect him at Ellis Island, and later as his fate is decided while he claws his way through filth and fears toward freedom.
Dom, as he is now known, becomes an escape artist. The dangers of living on the streets in New York in 1892 seem terrifying but he is motivated by an intense desire to find his way back to Italy where the challenges of life fortunately trained him in survival. Struggling in America without knowing the language is made more difficult because he must hide the fact that he is a Jew. The cover photograph shows refuse barrels, not unlike Dom's sanctuary for the very first night in his new world. It became another night of remembering and weeping. Today when identity theft and decisions about illegal immigrants are of growing concern, author Donna Jo Napoli stirs our imaginations with fiction
that has truly contemporary overtones.
Reviewer mcHAIKU is convinced that someone is always telling stories, year after year, one generation to the next. We are grateful that the 'threads' not available directly from family members are often available through collected oral histories. (SEE the author's "Afterword" in "The King of Mulberry Street").
All ages will rejoice that these bedraggled, unprotected children, gain street smarts, yet somehow bond with a belief in "MAGARI" - - "You get - - you give."
Rated by buyers -
I loved this book. I am reading it aloud to my 10 and 7 year old sons and they like it. Yes, there is a sad, violent episode,but that just makes it more realistic. I especially enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of the boys. I learned much about the immigrant experience,the prejudice of the immigrants towards each other, the life of the street children and Jewish traditions. Read it and give it to your kids to read, ages 10 and up.
Rated by buyers -
It's been a long time since I read a book in one sitting. A tremendous tale...you truly feel like you are living the life of a Five Points orphan in the 1890s. Beautiful work.
Find other books like this one:
