Sarah's Room

by Doris Orgel, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

Jen isn't allowed in sister Sarah's beautifully clean, specially wallpapered room because she tracks in mud, draws on walls, and leaves terrible messes. Can Jen learn to keep tidy so she will be welcome in Sarah's room?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Family, Fantasy

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1963

About the author

Doris Orgel is a children's writer. She was born in Vienna, Austria. As a child, she and her family fled to Yugoslavia and finally the U.S. during the rise of the Nazi party in Europe. She attended Radcliffe College from 1946 too 1948, and graduated cum laude from Barnard College in 1950.

In her career, Ms. Orgel has written and translated several fairy and folk tales, as well as served as a translator for other authors. Prior to her work as a children's writer, Orgel was in magazine and book publishing. Her first original book, Sarah’s Room (1963) was published under the pseudonym Doris Adelberg. It was also republished in England and in Switzerland in German. In 1960, Ms. Orgel received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for her translation of Willhelm Hauff's Dwarf Long-Nose (1960). Her book The Devil in Vienna (1978) received a Phoenix Award Honor in 1998. Ms. Orgel has also worked as a children’s book reviewer for "The New York Times".

She is married to Dr. Shelley Orgel; has three children: Paul, Laura, and Jeremy; two daughters-in-law: Sharon Lamb and Ling Chen Orgel; three grandchildren: Willy, Jennifer, and Julian; and three granddogs: Woof, Buster, and Otto. She lives in New York City.


For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/doris-orgel

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thematic concept which Doris Orgel textually presents in her 1963 longer picture book Sarah's Room (and which also seems to have been Orgel's first original publication) definitely has story potential, with Sarah's Room demonstrating through Orgel's poetry and with Maurice Sendak's accompanying images that Sarah's (and supposedly also somewhat messy and rambunctious) little sister Jen by the end of Sarah's Room is seen and approached by both Sarah and also by the mother as being both mature and also responsible enough to play with her sister's dollhouse and to also finally be allowed to have wallpaper in her bedroom.

And yes, how in Sarah's Room Jen is at first in a dreamlike sequence depicted as being able to open Sarah's latched bedroom to play with the dollhouse (and with the room being latched shut in the first place because Jen left a tiny bit of a mess near her sister's pristine dollhouse one day) but that Jen after her dream has then grown enough both physically and also mentally, emotionally (in real life so to speak) to open, to unlatch the door in order to play gently with Sarah's toys and her dollhouse (and to demonstrate to her doubting sister and mother that she is maturing, that Jen is indeed learning to play responsibly and to respect her sister's toys), this is for all intents and purposes a sweet little family themed story that should make my inner child smile. But to be perfectly honest, no, Sarah's Room most definitely does not make my inner child smile all that much if at all (and even adult I only appreciates Doris Orgel's premise for Sarah's Room and does not like the actual story, the featured contents all that much, although she does enjoy Sendak's illustrations even if the depicted dolls do look a bit visually creepy).

For one and hugely problematically, there is a very distinct and rather hammering didactic preachiness present in Sarah's Room and this being something that mildly bothers adult but indeed totally infuriates childhood me, since both Orgel verbally and Maurice Sendak illustratively show not only a very large caesura between little sister Jen and older sister Sarah, sorry, but everything in Sarah's Room feels and is obviously decidedly pro Sarah and massively anti Jen, with her bit of messiness being shown as some huge and all-encompassing character flaw (and that this is also and equally only "remedied" when Jen stops being messy, when she changes to what her sister and her mother want and expect of a good and of a "proper" little girl, and that aside from the frustrating preachiness, Sarah's Room is thus also totally and absolutely one-sided and with only prim and properly gentle playing with dollhouses and toys being seen and shown as acceptable, as tolerable).

For two, Doris Orgel's poetry for Sarah's Room reads pretty annoyingly awkwardly, stumblingly (and with my inner child in particular finding Orgel's verses distracting and often actually so much so that it negatively affects both reading pace and also following the actual storyline of Sarah's Room).

And for three, albeit adult I (as already mentioned above) does like Maurice Sendak's artwork for Sarah's Room even though the dolls do look a bit visually creepy (and which is probably also the only reason why my rating for Sarah's Room is not two but still three stars) my inner child actually does indeed find the dolls much too aesthetically weird (and also finds it visually rather frightening how at the beginning of Sarah's Room Jen's bedroom with its bare walls and its bed in one corner looks almost like a prison cell).

[Kelda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jenny cannot get her own wish, until she gets a little bigger and more responsible. This book shows children a way to grow into privileges, while it completely charms and delights! Sendak's illustrations bring this little world to life seamlessly. It is a lifetime favorite of mine.

[Glory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my most treasured childhood books. When I was young, I even memorized the sweet little poem and used to recite it for my younger siblings at bedtime. My brother, sister and I loved this sweet story about sisters, wallpaper, little glass animals and redemption.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a library book I frequently requested. Somehow library books held more fascination for me, novel and romantically elusive. I loved the drawings. I loved the the smallness of the book.

[Sarah Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book holds a special place in my heart as I am names after the Sarah in this book. In this story we see how Jenny wants to play in her sister Sarah’s room with all her toys but is messy and ruins things. Jenny subsequently is no longer allowed in Sarah’s room, but one night has a dream about playing in there and respecting Sarah’s things and not making a mess. When she wakes up, she has the desire to do the same and just when Sarah is about to walk in and yell at her she sees that Jenny has not made a mess and has finally learned how to respect and take care of Sarah’s things and room. This book tells the fantastical story of things coming to life in a dream, and the importance of respecting other people’s things. The artwork of this story brings all of the story to life through his technique of using pencil and ink and gives the reader beautiful vintage appearing artwork. I personally would not read this to a classroom of kids, as it is a bit dated and very limited in its non-diverse narrative and depiction. The references of ruining wallpaper may not be as relatable in both a socioeconomic and simply in the fact that most homes do not have wallpaper. Overall, the book has a good intent with the message of respecting others things but lacks the diversity and relevance of current times.

[FM Family · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another old Maurice Sendak illustrated story, which I actually came across after reading Ursula Nordstroms Collected Letters. Not the most compelling story, but one of those stories that is relatable to little kids in both its mundanity and its imaginativeness. The younger sister wrecks her big sisters room and then isn't allowed back in, and longs so much to go there, only in the end to get bigger and prove that she's able to go in the room and take care of things in it. My three year old had a weird moment of not wanting to read the book because it is small (?) and then got very into it for awhile, I think relating to this idea of wanting to explore a place even though someone tells you you aren't supposed to. A classic that holds up without doing anything terrible, and a story that resonates for all kids, though told in a more old-fashioned style.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much potential, but it just doesn't work for me. The dolls are creepy, and the rhyme awkward, imo. The idea is nice enough... little sister growing up and being more responsible... and earning the rewards due a big girl. But I don't think young me would have liked it: it comes across as preachy, to me.

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[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story about a little girl growing up admiring her older sister’s room, and especially Maurice Sendak’s art. The inside cover says that Time magazine called Sendak “the Picasso of children’s books.”

[J.E. Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the very first book I could read and I still have my childhood copy on my bookshelf today. I will always, always have a very special place in my heart for Sarah's Room!

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I used to read with my nan when we stayed over at her house and brought back so many memories. Mainly read to finish my goodreads goal but a cute book to read.

[Sarah Lombard · Rating 5 out of 5]

very sweet magical treasure