<P>In a city called New York ...<BR>In a neighborhood called El Bronx ...</P><UL><LI>The Fernandex children own a very special pet: A white hen named after their favorite Hollywood movie star.</LI><LI>A new girl comes to school - a gypsy child who can read palms and foretell the future.</LI><LI>A young boy must face the humiliation of wearing his uncle's orange roach-killer shoes to his high school graduation.</LI></UL><P>In the South Bronx - or El Bronx, as it's known to the people who live there - anything can happen. A migrant "fresh off the boat" from Puerto Rico can be somebody on the mainland, pursue the American Dream ... and maybe even make it come true.</P><P>Here are stories that capture the flavor and beat of El Bronx in its heyday, from 1946-1956.</P><P align=center>A <EM>New York Times</EM> Outstanding Book of the Year<BR>Finalist, 1976 National Book Award for Children's Literature<BR>A Notable Children's Trade Book in Social Studies (<EM>NCSS/CBC</EM>)</P>