In a picture book that blends realism and fantasy, a shoeshine boy is surprised when a piece of red silk falls from the sky. Trying to find its owner, he ventures up and down fire escapes, back and forth across clotheslines, and into the company of the colourfully diverse people who live in the tenement. Lively pages laid out in multiple panels, with a few words of text in dialogue balloons, capture the exhilarating action, and foreign language phrases are translated on the endpapers. There is a cheerful side to a neighbourhood packed with people of different origins - the opportunity to make friends across race lines, culture lines, and clotheslines!

 

There are 40 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company .

Maurie J. Manning's inspiration for this book is her own large family, which emigrated from various countries via Ellis Island in the early 1900s. The illustrator of numerous children's books, she lives in Berkeley, California. Visit her website at www. mauriejmanning. com.