![]() They only gave me a dime."So begins David Adler's inspired tale of the challenges and magic-yes, magic-of a depression-era childhood spent in the Bronx, New York. Ages 5-9., "For my birthday I was hoping my parents would give me a bicycle. Adler and Widener score bigAtheir book reads like a labor of love. We were both working to get our family through hard times." Widener's acrylics have a striking presence: their massy forms and jaunty, exaggerated perspectives achieve a look that's both nostalgic and edgy. His home runs helped me sell newspapers." But baseball isn't really what drives the bookAmore importantly, "I knew Dad and I were also a team. After selling a paper to the Babe himself, the boy feels new kinship with him: "He and I were a team. He conveys the father's humiliation and pride, but the boy's satisfaction in his own job and the family's general happiness keep their lot from seeming pitiful. ![]() Adler, previously paired with Widener for Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man, creates an empathic but unsentimental portrait of life during the Depression. Shocked, the boy numbly follows the friend, a "newsie," to work and ends up learning a great strategy for selling papers: go to Yankee Stadium and shout the latest about Babe Ruth. ![]() ![]() In the Bronx in 1932, a boy out walking with his friend discovers that his ostensibly employed father is actually selling apples on the street. ![]()
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