In a picture book that blends realism and fantasy, a shoeshine boy is surprised when a<BR>piece of red silk falls from the sky. Trying to find its owner, he ventures up and down<BR>fire escapes, back and forth across clotheslines, and into the company of the colorfully<BR>diverse people who live in the tenement. Lively pages laid out in multiple panels, with<BR>a few words of text in dialogue balloons, capture the exhilarating action, and foreignlanguage<BR>phrases are translated on the endpapers. There is a cheerful side to a neighborhood<BR>packed with people of different origins—the opportunity to make friends<BR>across race lines, culture lines, and clotheslines!