Revisiting: Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War

I was saddened to hear of Jean Merrill’s passingas she wrote one of my all-time favorite children’s books, The Pushcart War. And so to memorialize her and to draw attention to a book that may not be so well-known today (in fact, it seems to be out of print) here are a few of my thoughts and memories of this delightful work.

I don’t know when I came across it, but it was one of my absolute favorite books to teach years ago. It is the story of a war between Lower East Side New York City pushcart...