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Alphabet City Ballet
Living in a poor Puerto Rican family complicates life for ten-year-old Marisol when she realizes that pursuing her love for ballet may expose her brother to danger
- GenresFiction
168 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1996
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About the author
Erika Tamar
22 books4 followersErika Tamar is the award-winning author of nineteen books for children, including The Junkyard Dog, winner of the California Young Reader Medal and the Virginia Young Readers Award, and The Midnight Train Home, winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for best juvenile fiction.
She was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1939, after witnessing Kristallnacht and suffering under Jewish exclusionary laws, her parents sent her and her brother Henry, ages 4 and 9, away to strangers to save their lives.
They traveled to the U.S. in June 1939 as two of fifty children personally rescued by Jewish Philadelphians Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a rescue effort featured in the HBO documentary film and book, 50 Children, by Steven Pressman, and supported by documents housed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
By late August, they were adopted by a foster family and traveled to Houston, Texas, until her parents, Dr. Julius and Pauline Tamar, arrived in New York in November 1939, at which point they were reunited.
Erika tells this story herself in an oral history on video housed at the USHMM.
A lifelong New Yorker, Erika grew up in Washington Heights in Manhattan as the daughter of the neighborhood physician and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.
She was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1939, after witnessing Kristallnacht and suffering under Jewish exclusionary laws, her parents sent her and her brother Henry, ages 4 and 9, away to strangers to save their lives.
They traveled to the U.S. in June 1939 as two of fifty children personally rescued by Jewish Philadelphians Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a rescue effort featured in the HBO documentary film and book, 50 Children, by Steven Pressman, and supported by documents housed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
By late August, they were adopted by a foster family and traveled to Houston, Texas, until her parents, Dr. Julius and Pauline Tamar, arrived in New York in November 1939, at which point they were reunited.
Erika tells this story herself in an oral history on video housed at the USHMM.
A lifelong New Yorker, Erika grew up in Washington Heights in Manhattan as the daughter of the neighborhood physician and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 17, 2017
Marisol dreams of being a dancer and now that she's won a scholarship to the Manhattan Ballet School, it seems as if her dream is coming true. The only problem is...who will take her to the school which is far away and accessible only by multiple trains. Her older brother cannot do it since her works at the local grocery after school and her father is busy working double shifts at the restaurant.
She is disappointed because Papi says she cannot go alone...then, a brilliant idea! Desiree, another scholarship recipient, has a parent who can accompany both of them. Marisol's dream is coming to fruition! She is overjoyed...but that joy is soon deflated when Desiree moves and her mother can no longer accompany Marisol.
Adding to Marisol's squashed dreams is the fear that her brother, Luis is being recruited by Tito, the local drug lord to do his bidding. She hears and sees things that disturb her, but is hesitant to tattle to their Papi. Of course, as in most stories, all these things come to a head and the outcome is determine by values and how strongly one believes in them and family.
She is disappointed because Papi says she cannot go alone...then, a brilliant idea! Desiree, another scholarship recipient, has a parent who can accompany both of them. Marisol's dream is coming to fruition! She is overjoyed...but that joy is soon deflated when Desiree moves and her mother can no longer accompany Marisol.
Adding to Marisol's squashed dreams is the fear that her brother, Luis is being recruited by Tito, the local drug lord to do his bidding. She hears and sees things that disturb her, but is hesitant to tattle to their Papi. Of course, as in most stories, all these things come to a head and the outcome is determine by values and how strongly one believes in them and family.
January 13, 2011
A good simple read. Nice book to promote young readers to have dream, to keep in touch with your culture and the dangers of drugs. It kind of felt like the book didn't do well in mixing cultures though and the ending didn't really give me the nice happy feeling of, "She'll get through anything" since things just seemed to resolve itself either by chance or by her family member helping her.
All and all a great read.
All and all a great read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews