The Pushcart War

by Jean Merrill, Ronni Solbert (Illustrator)

Overview

"The best book about politics ever written for children." —The Washington Post

50th Anniversary Edition, now in paperback

DO YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF THE PUSHCART WAR? THE REAL HISTORY? 

It’s a story of how regular people banded together and, armed with  little more than their brains and good aim, defeated a mighty foe.

Not long ago the streets of New York City were smelly, smoggy, sooty, and loud. There were so many trucks making deliveries that it might take an hour for a car to travel a few blocks. People blamed the truck owners and the truck owners blamed the little wooden pushcarts that traveled the city selling everything from flowers to hot dogs. Behind closed doors the truck owners declared war on the pushcart peddlers. Carts were smashed from Chinatown to Chelsea. The peddlers didn’t have money or the mayor on their side, but that didn’t stop them from fighting back. They used pea shooters to blow tacks into the tires of trucks, they outwitted the police, and they marched right up to the grilles of those giant trucks and dared them to drive down their streets. Today, thanks to the ingenuity of the pushcart peddlers, the streets belong to the people—and to the pushcarts.

The Pushcart War was first published more than fifty years ago. It has inspired generations of children and been adapted for television, radio, and the stage around the world. It was included on School Library Journal’s list of One Hundred Books That Shaped the Twentieth Century, and its assertion that a committed group of men and women can prevail against a powerful force is as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was in 1964.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590179369
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	09/29/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	211,087
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

About the Author

Jean Merrill (1923–2012) was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up on a dairy and apple farm near Lake Ontario. She received a master’s degree in English literature from Wellesley in 1945 and later studied folklore in India on a Fulbright fellowship. She worked for many years as an editor at Scholastic Magazine, Literary Cavalcade, and the publications department of Bank Street College before turning to writing full time. Her first book, Henry, the Hand-Painted Mouse, was published in 1951 and her last, The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars: A Twelfth-Century Tale from Japan, in 1992. In between she wrote some thirty books for young readers, including The Pushcart War (1964), The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars (1967; available from The New York Review Children’s Collection), and The Toothpaste Millionaire (1977).

Ronni Solbert (b. 1925) was born in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Vassar and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. As a Fullbright recipient she studied folk and tribal art in India. She has illustrated more than forty children’s books and written and illustrated three of her own. As a painter, sculptor, and photographer she has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad.

Table of Contents

I	How It Began: The Daffodil Massacre	13
II	The Blow-up of Marvin Seeley's Picture	17
III	More About Morris the Florist & A Little About Frank the Flower and Maxie Hammerman, the Pushcart King	21
IV	The Summer Before the War	25
V	Wenda Gambling Sees the Danger Signs	31
VI	The Peanut Butter Speech	33
VII	The Words That Triggered the War	35
VIII	The Secret Meeting & The Declaration of War	39
IX	The Secret Campaign Against the Pushcarts	47
X	The Meeting at Maxie Hammerman's: The Pushcarts Decide to Fight	53
XI	The Secret Weapon	59
XII	The Pea Shooter Campaign-Phase I	65
XIII	Maxie Hammerman's Battle Plan & General Anna's Hester Street Strategy	75
XIV	Some Theories As to the Cause of the Flat Tires: The Rotten-Rubber Theory, The Scattered Pea-Tack Theory, and The Enemy-from-Outer-Space Theory	83
XV	The Arrest of Frank the Flower	91
XVI	Big Moe's Attack on the Police Commissioner	101
XVII	The Pea Shooter Campaign-Phase II	105
XVIII	The Retreat of the Trucks & Rumors of a Build-up on the Fashion Front	113
XIX	The Tacks Tax & The British Ultimatum	117
XX	The Pea Blockade	121
XXI	The Barricade at Posey's Plant	125
XXII	The Raid on Maxie Hammerman's	131
XXIII	The Questioning of Maxie Hammerman	139
XXIV	The Portlette Papers: The LEMA Master Plan & The Plot to Capture Maxie Hammerman	143
XXV	The Three-Against-One Gamble & The Capture of the Bulletproof Italian Car	153
XXVI	Maxie Hammerman's War Chest: A Philosophy of War	161
XXVII	The Truck Drivers' Manifesto	165
XXVIII	The Truce	167
XXIX	The Peace March	173
XXX	Mack's Attack	179
XXXI	The Sneak Attack	187
XXXII	Frank the Flower's Crocheted Target	191
XXXIII	The Turning Point: The War of Words	197
XXXIV	The Battle of Bleecker Street	207
XXXV	The Pushcart Peace Conference & The Formulation of The Flower Formula for Peace	213
XXXVI	The Post-War Years	219

Editorial Reviews

The Pushcart War had a profound impact on me; when I was a kid I devoured it several times, and I’ve carried it deep inside me ever since. The book gave me a point of entrance–my first, I imagine–into the world of resistance to political and economic injustice and chicanery. It made opposition, even nonviolent civil disobedience, seem fun and right and necessary and heroic, and something even someone as powerless as a kid could and should undertake.” —Tony Kushner

“Finally, parents can get their hands on new copies of the best book about politics ever written for children. . . . This lively, lovely novel is an argument for staying hopeful about the possibility of bringing about change, even when you are going up against entrenched and powerful interests.” —Alyssa Rosenberg, The Washington Post

 “A book about friendship and sticking together and sticking up for yourself, especially against The Man. Plus it’ll just make you feel all warm and fuzzy.” —Emily Temple, Flavorwire

 “This is one of the great children’s classics. . . . Part of its charm is its old–New York quaintness, but the exciting story, set in the pressure-cooker of city traffic, is timeless.” —Sonja Bolle, Newsday

 “Merrill’s story, full of unexpected reversals and understated witticisms, feels exceptionally modern. And by the end—after the two sides have hammered out a peaceful and deeply reasonable compromise—one can only hope that we’ll catch up to Merrill’s future one day.” —Adam Mansbach, NPR, You Must Read This

 “This is satire on almost every conceivable aspect of modern urban life. . . .To all it should be funny, and to many it will have the disturbing ring of truth.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“The tale of New York’s pushcart peddlers waging war against the monstrous, bullying trucks is droll—as are Ronni Solbert’s illustrations—but its message remains urgent.” —Nicole Rudick, The Paris Review  blog

“There’s a children’s book that was of great help to me, The Pushcart War  by Jean Merrill. It is quite a wonderful description of how to run a campaign.” —Bill McKibben, The Boston Globe

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
Gr 4–6—It's war! The battlefields are the streets of New York City, and the weapons are pea shooters. Up in arms because traffic jams slow down their deliveries, the truck owners aim to get the pushcarts out of the picture. But the pushcart peddlers won't go down without a fight. The setting of this 50th-anniversary edition has been updated to 2036 (the book originally was set in 1974, and each edition has updated the year in which it takes place to reflect a not-too-distant future). An unusual children's book—few children actually appear—SLJ included this innovative work on its "One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century" and lauded it as "social satire for children in its finest form." As with many of the late author's books, Merrill tells with dexterity the tale of underdogs who persevere in the face of injustice. This strikingly original work should continue to find fans among children and adults alike.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

School Library Journal