A truly grand book. (Classified as "for children and intelligent grown-ups"). I read it when it was new, and shared it then with Girl Scouts (who, in turn, shared it with their parents). The Stillwater OK newspaper published a long review I'd written, so more folks got it. . . and I even wrote a fan letter to Jean Merrill.
Obviously I hope you who read this will track it down. You will be rewarded. ( )

I read this book as a child. It was enchanting - delightful. This was one of the first times I ever saw something written as a future history. I was enthralled by the device. The gentle humor combined with the environmental and social message has proven eerily accurate and precient. ( )

This is the amusing story of how the humble pushcarts of New York defied the might of the trucks that were threatening to take over the streets of the city in an all-out campaign against anything else that moved. Maxie Hammerman is the Pushcart King as his father and grandfather had been before him, and he is the acknowledged leader of the five hundred and nine pushcarts licensed to do business in the city of New York. When the trucks decide to make an example of the pushcarts to the rest of the public by fearlessly mowing them down, Maxie and his dedicated crew of cart-pushers determine to fight back. And the four months that this conflict lasted came to be called the Pushcart War.

This book is one of the best pieces of juvenile literature that I have ever encountered. One of the funny things about it is that I read it at a very young age, and it is presented as something that truly occurred, so I was never sure if it was true or not (but I did have my doubts because of some of the characters' names; you have to read it to know what I mean). Even now, although I'm older and wiser and supposedly know so much more than I used to, I wonder if the Pushcart War really happened, and if Maxie Hammerman really was the Pushcart King, and if Jean Merrill (the author) really did write in to the paper to complain about the trucks, as the story says she did. Who knows? :-) ( )

CLASSIC! This book gives meaning to my life. A hillarious story about pushcarts and the ways of the past starting an unconventional war against the pushy trucks filling the New York City streets.