House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff

Spotlight on Historical Fiction

House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff

Blanket stitches, brass buttons, buttonholes, sew, sew, sew and stitch, stitch, stitch.  Dina is growing tired of sewing.  When she emigrates from her home in Breisach, Germany to Brooklyn, New York, will she turn her back on sewing forever? Let’s shine the spotlight on this historically grounded book:

Summary

While the German soldiers take on the French near the Rhine River, thirteen-year old Dina is growing up in the sewing business.  Her papa passed away two years ago.  Now, she works along side her sister, Katharina, and her mama.  Her younger brothers, Franz and Friedrich, play around the house while they work. 

One day, a letter arrives from Mama’s brother.  He invites Katharina to move to Brooklyn to live with him and his family.  Dina wishes to go with her sister, but Mama has only saved enough money to send one of them.   Then, Dina makes a decision, which will change her life and the lives of those around her.  She sneaks out of the house to share a dress pattern with her friend, Elise, who lives on the French side of the river.  She is captured by a German soldier and mistaken for a French spy.  After a short interrogation from a group of soldiers, she escapes them and returns home safe.  But, the damage is already done.  The German soldiers know her face and will find her.  Without hesitation, Mama decides it is Dina who must be sent to Brooklyn to live with her brother before the soldiers come for her. 

As Dina travels to Brooklyn she imagines a new life in America, one without sewing.  But, when she arrives at her uncle’s house, she greets his wife, Barbara, their daughter, Maria, her mama and uncle’s sister, Ida and…a sewing machine.  She realizes her new life is not much different from her old life.  It may even be a little bit worse because her uncle and his family are poorer and she is terribly homesick.  She receives letters from Katherina and Mama to sustain her.

Dina bonds with Barbara, helping her around the house and caring for Maria.  She also finds out Barbara is expecting another child.  However, she struggles with her relationship with her uncle.  She knows she needs to work to support her stay with the family, but her uncle wants her to help with his tailoring business.  Dina reluctantly takes direction from her uncle and begins sewing again.  She even befriends a boy, Johann, from a tailor shop in the neighborhood.  They spend time walking and talking and grow closer throughout Dina’s time in Brooklyn.

Two significant events occur around Christmas: Dina helps Barbara and Maria avoid a Health Department scare by hiding their smallpox illness.  Dina’s uncle is grateful for her quick thinking and much needed care.  Then, Dina helps save the family from a fire in the apartment building.  The fire leaves the family with little left in the house.  It damages her uncle’s fabric and the money she had been saving to return home.  Dina is crushed.  But, her uncle comes through.  In the New Year, he reveals he has the money to send her home in the spring.  However, Dina insists this money be used to pay back a client, who had trousers burned in the fire.  Then, she thinks of a better idea.  She decides she can make two dresses for a client.  When the client pays her for the dresses, they can use the money for the ticket home and pay back the other client.  Her plan works, but Dina has a change of heart.  She has grown close to the family and closer to Johann.  She even finds an empty shop for her uncle to fulfill his dream of owning a sewing business.  She decides to stay to help him in his shop.  Her final letter from home shares even better news…Katherina will be joining her in Brooklyn after all!

Discussion

This book is based on the stories Patricia Reilly Giff’s mother and grandmother told about her great-grandmother, Dina.  It is historical fiction combining world history and United States history.  The story is set up in three sections, divided by setting and time.  It begins in Breisach, Germany in 1870, shifts to Brooklyn, New York in 1871 and ends in Brooklyn in 1872.

Giff includes an Afterward at the end of the book.  She shares details about how this story ties in the life of her great-grandmother.  Much of the book is fiction, but Giff’s great-grandmother lives on through this story.  Giff’s wish is to keep her great-grandmother’s memory alive for her family.  There is an alignment between the real stories told about her great-grandmother and the stories in her text like her great-grandmother, Dina, taking a journey to American to escape sewing, only to arrive at her uncle’s house of tailors.  Dina also fell in love with a man named Johann and they later married.  The house her great-grandmother lived in still exists in Heidelberg, Germany.  These alignments add to the authenticity of the book.

Readers will be able to relate to Dina’s character.  Her struggles with finding her voice and her identity will resonate with many readers.  Dina goes from negotiating her place in her family to negotiating her place in her uncle’s family.  She often acts without thinking through the consequences and is driven by action, which makes her feel like a more realistic character.  Her emotions are transparent and acknowledged through the internal conversation Giff lets the reader in on.  Dina makes the emotions behind immigrating to the United States come to life for the reader.  The patterns within Dina’s daily life are timely for the 1900’s, but relatable to current times, like her sacrifice for her family and extended family, as well as the support her family provides for one another. 

The relationship Dina shares with Johann is developed delicately and is fitting for young teenagers.  Giff stays true to the light and fun times children at this age would have in the company of one another.

The hardships and joys Dina experiences would match the historical time.  The themes within the plot, like the tensions between the German and French, emigration, sacrificing for the ones you love, economic strife, unconditional love of family and the impact of choices are realistic to the time period of the late 1900’s.  There is historical grounding in the setting, which provides a foundation for the plot.  Giff’s detailed writing allows the reader to picture Breisach and Brooklyn.   Her writing style takes historical and fictional details and weaves them together seamlessly. 

Overall, the strength in this book is Giff’s ability to bring together her own family history, U.S. and world history and additional fictional details into an engaging story.

Awards/Reviews

Patricia Reilly Giff has received many honors.  She received the Newbery Honor for Pictures of Hollis Woods and Lily’s Crossing.  Lily’s Crossing also received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor.  Nory Ryan’s Song was named an ALA Best Book and an ALA Notable Book.

Here are samples of a few reviews for House of Tailors:

“This novel is rich with believable, endearing characters as well as excitement and emotion.  Readers get a glimpse into life in Brooklyn in the 1870s, especially the dreaded Health Department inspections during the epidemic.  Sprinkled with letters from home, the story captures the universal immigrant dilemma, ‘we would always have a longing to go back and a longing to stay.’"– School Library Journal

“There are many books about immigrants in the U.S; the strengths of this one are its profuse details and its cranky heroine.  And a heroine Dina is, sometimes exaggeratedly so, as when she saves both Barbara and Marie from a fire.  Yet, Dina is not a stock character; she's a real child, who works hard, literally and figuratively, to find her way.  When she realizes that designing dresses is something she loves, readers will cheer her perseverance, and the happy ending seems well deserved.” – Booklist

“The plot is swept along by dramatic truths of Brooklyn life in the 1870s: economic struggle, epidemic, and fire, as well as a hint of romance.  Giff’s fans will be pleased.”—Kirkus Reviews

Teacher’s Tools

A guest speaker who immigrated to the United States from Germany could be invited to share their experiences. 

Students could engage in further research to make links from the book to historical facts about immigration.

Students could participate in a Reader’s Theater using one of the chapters from the book.

Dina received letters from her family, but she did not write letters back.  Students could write letters from Dina to her family detailing the events and her emotions during her stay in Brooklyn.  Students could evidence how her emotions towards the family, Johann and Brooklyn shift throughout the book.

After reading this book, students could participate in literature circles.  The small groups could engage in further book study about the theme of sacrifice, the theme of emigration or the setting of the early 1900’s. 

Bibliographic Information

Giff, Patricia Reilly. 2004. House of Tailors. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN-0-385-73066-7.