My new friend Barry who feels like an old friend has a book out today. It’s an important, beautiful book and you should buy it or check it out from your local library!
“New ideas need old buildings.”
Jane Jacobs said this — but Oscar could have, too. He came to America with a few bills and a vision: his very own barber shop, established in 1899 on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue. But Oscar moved on (and up), as people do. The New York City tenement building with first-floor retail is the backdrop to a fictional rotating cast of characters — each with their own version of their American dream. They launched candy shops and doctor’s offices, built soup kitchens and women’s clothing stores, opened bodegas and record shops.
Until… (cue the luxury housing developers) …one day, the dreams stopped.
Find out what happens to scrappy enterprises, clever business ideas, mom-and-pop shops on a shoe-string budget, and neighborhood outposts serving essential needs when old buildings are —poof— gone overnight.
Beautifully illustrated and cleverly executed, Oscar’s American Dream introduces young readers to complex ideas about city-building and placemaking. Wittenstein asks young readers to wonder, who, exactly, is a place really for?
OSCAR’S AMERICAN DREAM by Barry Wittenstein, Illustrated by Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell, published by Schwartz & Wade Books (2020).
Find this title in your local independent bookshop.
A note about this review: I received an advanced reader copy of this book. I am under no obligation to review these books and all opinions are my own.
