Review: One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor
One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Sarah Green Calkins Creek (imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org As readers of The Sydney Taylor Shmooze blog know, Sydney Taylor was the author of the All-of-a-Kind Family series, the first popular mainstream books to feature Jewish characters. The Association of Jewish Libraries' children's book award is named in Taylor's memory. One of a Kind is a picture book biography of Sydney Taylor, detailing her childhood, relationships, influences, career moves, and the fulfillment of her dream to become an author. Taylor's complex and active lifetime has been skillfully simplified here, with straightforward language and a thematic throughline of Syd's desire for social justice, manifested at last in the publication of All-of-a-Kind Family . The facts are based closely upon Taylor's own writings and family reco