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 colorfully
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 foreignlanguage
phrases are translated on the endpapers. There is a cheerful side to a
neighborhood
packed with people of different origins--the opportunity to make
friends
across race lines, culture lines, and clotheslines!