Isak and the Oranges: The Half-Orphans of HOA (Hebrew Orphan Asylum, NY)

Young and old readers alike are fascinated by stories of life in an orphanage. In a carefully researched book about orphans and half-orphans at the turn of the last century, Nancy Price Freedman weaves an eye-opening tale of institutional life, based on the experiences of her father's siblings, who were "inmates" in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York City. Interviews with other inmates of that institution reveal questionable childcare practices that were common in the early twentieth cent...