Book Reviews
The King of Mulberry Street by Donna Jo Napoli
Reading level: Grades 5–8
Mistaken in the belief that his mama has accompanied him on a boat from Naples, nine-year-old stowaway Dom instead disembarks alone at Ellis Island. His impulse is to hop the next rig back to Italy. But as he desperately dodges the social service workers who want to deposit him in an orphanage, Dom decides his best hope to see his family again is to head to New York's Mulberry Street—the neighborhood where, in 1892, many Naples immigrants have settled—to try to earn the money for his return passage.
Dom faces another daunting challenge. Concluding that his identity as a Jew would best be kept under wraps, yet fervently wanting to continue to keep kosher, Dom manages to maintain his integrity even while finding a way to survive life on the streets. Clever not only with numbers, but with people as well, Dom establishes a successful business selling sandwiches. He also makes friends, earns the respect of bullies, and sidesteps the universal scourge of fictional street urchins: eluding the nefarious padrones who all but enslave children by forcing them to beg on the streets.
Strength of Character
For a novel about grueling immigrant life, The King of Mulberry Street is surprisingly unsentimental, offering a message that goes deeper than the obligatory historical fiction lessons. At a tender age, thrown into circumstances that would bring down even the strongest adult, our hero refuses to sacrifice his character or morals for anything or anyone—even when his life would seem to depend on it.
Dom is not afraid to find an ally in a grownup, although in his situation the risk of trusting anyone is great. His intuition is sound, though, and his trust is rewarded. His impressive friendship skills—with children as well as adults—allow him to wend his way through the harsh guttersnipe hierarchies, and his capacity to solve the big problem of survival as well as smaller day-to-day problems sets a standard any child would do well to follow.
Social and Emotional Lessons in The King of Mulberry Street
Teachers will find The King of Mulberry Street useful for reinforcing the SECOND STEP concepts of friendship, caring, responsibility, problem solving, and anger management. This book is a natural way to reinforce SECOND STEP skills in a history or social studies class.
Emilie Coulter
Book Reviewer
Committee for Children
