Customer Reviews

Not a Nickel to Spare: The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen

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Length:: 2:46 Mins

Here a book trailer for Not a Nickel to Spare: the Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen

I agree with Emily: this title is misleading. The book is only related to the Great Depression because that is the setting, not the real subject. I appreciate the plight of Jews in Canada pre- and during-World War II, it is an important story, and that is what the title should have represented.

If you want a good story about the Great Depression in Toronto, read Booky by Bernice Thurman Hunter. It's full of the details that make a book come alive, and has a real, lovable girl as the protagonist. Not only is Not a Nickel to Spare dry as a bone, but I can't imagine a 12-year-old girl from then or now writing about what Sally does (and yes, it was written by a man). No details, no personality, but a conspicuous agenda. This series is pretty excellent as a whole, and I enjoyed the fact that it was written by prominent Canadian women authors. This book is not on par with the others.

By the way, I would have thought historical accuracy was important in this series. So why let a modern slang phrase like "waste of space" get by, editors?

This text is supposed to be about the Great Depression except it is predominately about growing up Jewish in pre WWII, Toronto. The title is very misleading, as well as the synopsis on the back of the cover. It begins as a passive diary, but gets aggressively historic towards the end with no real transition. If you are expecting to read a diary about a twelve year old girl growing up during the depression, this would not be the book to choose. I was very disappointed. If you want to know about the Great Depression, this would not be a good fiction source. The author should consider changing the title of the book and the synopsis to better suit the text.