A House of Tailors
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A House of Tailors Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Patricia Reilly Giff (Author), Blair Brown (Narrator), Listening Library (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 58 ratings
See all formats and editions
SEWING! NO ONE could hate it more than Dina Kirk.
Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she's worked in her family's dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family.
When 13-year-old Dina leaves her small town in Germany to join her uncle's family in Brooklyn, she turns her back on sewing. Never again! But looking for a job leads her right back to the sewing machine. Why did she ever leave home? Here she is, still with a needle and thread--and homesick to boot.
She didn't know she could be this homesick, but she didn't know she could be so brave either, as she is standing up to an epidemic or a fire. She didn't know she could grow so close to her new family or to Johann, the young man from the tailor's shop. And she didn't know that sewing would reveal her own wonderful talent--and her future.
In Dina, the beloved writer Patricia Reilly Giff has created one of her most engaging and vital heroines. Readers will enjoy seeing 1870s Brooklyn through Dina's eyes, and share her excitement as she discovers a new world. From the Hardcover edition.
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  1. Listening Length
    3 hours and 27 minutes
  2. Author
    Patricia Reilly Giff
  3. Narrator
    Blair Brown
  4. Audible release date
    December 28, 2003
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Listening Library
  7. ASIN
    B0006IU60K
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 3 hours and 27 minutes
Author Patricia Reilly Giff
Narrator Blair Brown
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date December 28, 2003
Publisher Listening Library
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0006IU60K
Best Sellers Rank #230,865 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#1,341 in Family Life Fiction for Children
#1,525 in Parenting & Family Reference
#2,590 in Education (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
58 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tiffany B.
5.0 out of 5 stars My son loved this book.
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2019
Verified Purchase
My son really felt connected with the characters and felt this book taught him to look at and view others in a new, better light.
One person found this helpful
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Betsy Bird
5.0 out of 5 stars The brave little tailor
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2005
Historical fiction is that huge genre of children's books that I am just not as familiar with as I should be. The field tends to be dominated by such big names as Richard Peck and, in this case, Patricia Reilly Giff. As a child I was always far more interested in books of fantasy and magic, and I am afraid that very little has changed since I have grown. But "A House of Tailors" is one of those well-written works of historical fiction that can draw in even a fantasy-preferring twit like myself. Giff brings to beautiful colorful life the world of 1870 Brooklyn, New York. The dirt, the disease, and the small human pleasures of it all.

Dina is desperately jealous of her older sister Katharina. While Dina must stay in Germany doing what she hates most, sewing, Katharina is going to America to live with their rich Uncle. At this moment in 1870 Germany is at war with France, an annoyance to Dina who likes to swap patterns with her friend Elise on the French side. But when Dina escapes one morning to do her usual swap and is caught by German soldiers thinking her a spy, her escape can only be brought about one way. She will have to be the one sent to America and not her sister. Dina is embarrassed and distraught but the fact that she won't be sewing anymore is some comfort. Yet when she arrives in America, the streets her uncle takes her down become dirtier and dirtier. Finally they reach the last one, climb all the steps to the top floor, and enter the apartment. That's when Dina sees the sewing machine in the middle of the room and realizes that she has simply exchanged one house of tailors for another. Now she must save her money to return to Germany, but not before growing to love her family, the boy in the men's shop down the street, and this crazy mixed up town called Brooklyn where dreams of the future came sometimes come true.

Giff's heroine undergoes a perfectly conceived series of changes and she grows and learns realistically in this new world of America. At first, Dina is really quite awful. When she runs off and does something without thinking you instinctively begin to cringe, knowing full well that some awful comeuppance is about to occur. At the same time, however, she's intelligent and ingenious, not to say heroic. It becomes clear that her true love is hatmaking and not sewing, and the sequences in which she describes the creation of a hat are truly amusing and wonderful. They reminded me at times of the hatmaking in Diana Wynne Jones's, "Howl's Moving Castle". Then there is the storytelling, something that Giff has perfected over the years. This book is an almost perfect series of adventures and misadventures with a steady rising/falling action that retains interest right up until the end. If you want something on the mid-19th century German immigrant experience, I can think of few books that tell their tales half as well as this one.

Giff tells us in her Afterword that the Dina featured here is based on her own great-grandmother's life. One hopes that Ms. Giff has more ancestors from whom to plunder this kind of rousing story. Whether the book's showing the ways to battle smallpox or escape from tenement fires, it's a grand testament to a long gone time. A truly enjoyable book that kids will find themselves surprised to enjoy.
15 people found this helpful
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Jessica P
4.0 out of 5 stars Fort Mortimer?
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
I am enjoying the story, but I believe I have found an error. There is a reference to a "Fort Mortimer" in France. Upon research, I could not find this fort. However, I did find "Fort Mortier". I assume this is the fort the author was intending to reference, though I'm not completely sure. However, it is a bit of a glaring error when one is trying to use the novel as part of a geography and history unit.
That said, the story is engaging. I do recommend it.
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tnlady
5.0 out of 5 stars Family is Everything
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2016
This was a fast easy read with references to a War.
Going to America and finding a very grateful family.
She discovered while living in the U S A, that the
very thing she disliked so much was her destiny !
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The Goss Family
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with great details and glimpses of the past
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2016
Amazing book. Our daughter ( 9) loved it and enjoyed studying this time and these events in history through this book a lot.
One person found this helpful
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LonestarReader
5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2005
Dina's stitches are small and straight. She has a sense for color and fabric. Dina's gift is sewing but she hates it. She longs to go to America and live with her uncle and his family but when she ends up having to flee to New York from her home in Germany she finds her dream and the reality of life in Brooklyn are far apart.

Giff can put the reader into the setting of a story better than any other writer. In her novel, "Nory Ryan's Song," we knew when the blight had overtaken the potato crop because we could "smell" it. In this book we sense the crowded streets, the cooking in the tenements and the soot from the fires of Brooklyn in the 1870s. The crowding, disease and long back breaking hours of labor that were part of the immigrants life are accurately depicted. The joys of the her new land include her first taste of ice cream, a new friend, Johann, and her niece and nephew. Dina longs for her home and family in Germany but finds she cannot imagine leaving her new family and friends. She takes great pride in her talent for hat and dressmaking and ultimately makes a place for herself in her new country. Dina is a wonderful character full of strength and love.

Giff wrote this story as a tribute to her great grandmother. Her touching afterward describes which stories from the book which came directly from her own family history.
Patricia Riley Giff is one of the most honest writers I have ever read. She is like an accomplished musician, every note of her books rings true and touches the heart
11 people found this helpful
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KidsReads
5.0 out of 5 stars A girl's struggles in a creating new life for herself
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2004
Ever since she was little, thirteen-year-old Dina Kirk has worked in her family's tailoring business. Her mother takes pride in working with Dina and her sister Katharina. Her mother's business cards read "Frau Kirk and Daughters - Tailors."

Through a strange twist of fate, Dina's dreams of escaping her sewing machine come true. She leaves everything that is familiar in Germany and moves in with her uncle's family in Brooklyn. She is horrified to discover that her uncle is also a tailor, and soon she finds herself sitting in front of a sewing machine again. Now Dina is miserable and homesick too.

Dina struggles to fit in with her new family and tries to stand up to her uncle, who is almost as stubborn as she is. Her family soon discovers how strong and brave Dina is in the face of adversity. She helps the family through a health epidemic and does what no one else dares to do when a fire rages at their home.

Dina is surprised by the closeness she feels for her new family and her feelings for Johann, a young man from a rival tailor shop. Dina's future is revealed at the end of the novel, and no one is more surprised than Dina.

Patricia Reilly Giff has created a spunky and believable heroine with Dina in A HOUSE OF TAILORS. Readers will enjoy her adventures while learning about the challenges that our ancestors faced when coming to a new country.

--- Reviewed by Renee Kirchner (renee.kirchner@usa.net)
11 people found this helpful
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