A House of Tailors

By: Patricia Reilly Giff

Narrated by: Blair Brown

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.

Another good one by Giff

Patricia Reilly Giff is one of my favorite authors for childrens books and again she has written a well crafted story. I love historical fiction and this story brings to life the 1870s in Brooklyn from the point of view of German immigrant Dina.

A House of Tailors

This was a wonderful story, and a great example of immigration. My 11 year old daughter loved it, and learned alot about what it was like to immigrate to a new country.