Not a Nickel to Spare

Not a Nickel to Spare
The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen, 1932
by Perry Nodelman

Not a Nickel to Spare is a Dear Canada book about a Jewish girl named Sally Cohen and her family who lived during the Great Depression. The people and events in this story are fictional, but Perry Nodelman based many of the details on her parent's life in Toronto in the 1930s.

I like this book because it was interesting to find out the meaning of Yiddish word used in the book (it provides a glossary at the back). It was also very funny in places, like when a box of matches fell into the bread dough Sally's mother was making and then they didn't know if it was kosher or not. They ended up taking the dough to the Rabbi, who said it was okay to eat.

I found I could relate to Sally because she loved to read like I do and The Five Little Peppers was her favourite book, and I really enjoyed that book as well. And although we aren't Jewish like the Cohens, my family and I keep the sabbath and scriptural holidays, such as Passover (Pesach), Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hosanna), Day of Atonement (Yom Kipur).

I didn't like how Gert and Sophie both went against their father's wishes and went out with men who were not Jewish. It says in the epilogue that Gert married the man she kept going out with but Sophie married a man her father approved of.

I think people should read this book so they can understand the difficulties Jews faced at that time and what life was like during the Great Depression.

This book would be enjoyed most by someone age 9 and up, but someone of every age would like this book.