The Busiest Street in Town
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Agatha Walker does not want to live on the busiest street in town!Rushmore Boulevard is the busiest street in town—until Agatha May Walker decides to do something about it. Armed with a batch of Sweet and Spicy ginger snaps, a wingback chair, a card table, and a Parcheesi set, Agatha and her best friend, Eulalie Scruggs, take to the street to reclaim it from the noisy cars, motorcycles, and giant trucks that rumble by all day long. Can these lifelong friends convince their neighbors to stop and smell the honeysuckle, listen to the mariachi band, and best of all, sample the Sweet and Spicy ginger snaps?In this charming picture book about slowing down, a laid-back attitude is the best kind. So sit for a spell and give it a whirl!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Agatha May Walker and Eulalie Scruggs are lifelong friends who live directly across from each other on Rushmore Boulevard. The aptly named thoroughfare has become so congested ("Cars zipped by. Motorcycles roared. Giant trucks rumbled and grumbled, coming through, coming through") that the simple act of visiting one another has become downright dangerous. So Agatha engages in a classic act of civil disobedience: she plants a wingback chair smack in the middle of the street and offers her homemade gingersnaps to even the rudest drivers. Page by page, the traffic retreats, neighbors emerge from their homes and soon Agatha and Eulalie are presiding over a festive pedestrian playground, complete with mariachi band. The heroines' willingness to take a stand in the name of civility and community shows that even little old ladies (and, by implication, little kids) can make a difference. It's a story that could easily turn preachy or treacly, but Rockliff (Next to an Ant) and the always buoyant McMenemy (Everybody Bonjours!) proffer their object lesson with a light touch: the reportorial prose and cheery, na ve drawings exude a matter-of-fact optimism that's genuinely inspiring. Ages 5 8.
