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From: Nancy Silverrod <nsilverrod>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 16:30:15 -0700
Thinking back to my childhood, there was a book that really politicized me: The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill, which, I'm pleased to note, is still in print. The details of the struggle between the pushcart owners in New York City and the Mack Truck drivers who wanted them out of the way of progress are still fresh in my mind. The book was rich in detail; I could smell the hotdog vendor's wares, and the diesel of the trucks; smell the sweat of pushcart vendor and truck driver, hear the clamor of horns and the cries of the pushcart owners hawking their wares. It was such sweet justice that the little guys could get together, and united, defeat a bigger enemy. While this doesn't, perhaps, address transitions in the sense that others are thinking about, reading this book in 1967 or '68, in the midst of all the social unrest around me, was a life-changing experience.
More recent books that have the ability to politicize in this way would include Avi's Nothing But the Truth, and to a lesser but also satisfying degree, Frindle by Andrew Clements.
Nancy Silverrod
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Received on Fri 03 Sep 2004 06:30:15 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 16:30:15 -0700
Thinking back to my childhood, there was a book that really politicized me: The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill, which, I'm pleased to note, is still in print. The details of the struggle between the pushcart owners in New York City and the Mack Truck drivers who wanted them out of the way of progress are still fresh in my mind. The book was rich in detail; I could smell the hotdog vendor's wares, and the diesel of the trucks; smell the sweat of pushcart vendor and truck driver, hear the clamor of horns and the cries of the pushcart owners hawking their wares. It was such sweet justice that the little guys could get together, and united, defeat a bigger enemy. While this doesn't, perhaps, address transitions in the sense that others are thinking about, reading this book in 1967 or '68, in the midst of all the social unrest around me, was a life-changing experience.
More recent books that have the ability to politicize in this way would include Avi's Nothing But the Truth, and to a lesser but also satisfying degree, Frindle by Andrew Clements.
Nancy Silverrod
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Received on Fri 03 Sep 2004 06:30:15 PM CDT
