Shutting Out the Sky: #6 and #7
Life in the Tenements of New York 1880-1924
By Deborah Hopkinson
(2 books)

Hopkinson, Deborah. ( ). Shutting out the sky: Life in the tenements of new york 1880-1924.

Grade Level: 5-8

Awards: International Reading Association Children’s Book Award, NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book, NYPL Book for Teen Age, Notable Social Studies Trade Book

Standards: Social Studies: (History, Geography) Examine the historical developments in U.S. Examine the various groups who migrated to U.S. and causes of this migration.

Illustrations: Tinted archival photographs, in black and white. She received many photo credits from New York Historical Society, Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York, and various other museums.

Author’s Credibility: Hopkinson spent three years writing this book. She made several trips to New York to select photographs, listen to oral tapes, and visit the Lower East Side. In the acknowledgments, she also recognized all the people and organizations that helped her with the book.

Summary: Through the lives of five immigrants, Hopkinson described their struggles, hardships, prejudices, and their victories while living in America. They came to America looking for a better life, but found despair and heartache before they became successful citizens of the United States. Hopkinson also used primary sources, individual stories, and excerpts from autobiography to tell about their ordeals.

Access Features: Contents, index, acknowledgments, forward and after word, timeline, notes, further readings, text permission, and voices in the book.

Writing Styles: Hopkinson used chronological and descriptive organization that offered coherence through background information, people speaking, and author’s presence.

Related Readings: Tenement: Immigrant Life on the Lower East Side, Raymond Bial; Immigrant Kid, Russell Freedman; 97 Orchard Street, New York: Stories of Immigrant Life, Linda Granfield; How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis; Kids on Strike, Susan Bartoletti

Response: This book reminded me of some of the same issues and hardships that the African American women had in Let It Shine, Andrea Pinkey. It discussed their hardships, but it also gave the reader hope because each one of the five persons in the book finally made their dreams come true. I would use this book as a read-aloud to my students when we discussed immigration to the new world. Because Hopkinson gave additional background information in her notes, it would be a good resource book for extended studies.