Laundry Day

In a picture book that blends realism and fantasy, a shoeshine boy is surprised when a piece of red silk falls from the sky. Trying to find its owner, he ventures up and down fire escapes, back and forth across clotheslines, and into the company of the colorfully diverse people who live in the tenement.

Lively pages laid out in multiple panels, with a few words of text in dialogue balloons, capture the exhilarating action, and foreign language phrases are translated on the endpapers. There is a cheerful side to a neighborhood packed with people of different origins—the opportunity to make friends across race lines, culture lines, and clotheslines!

Praise for Laundry Day

"Everything teems with movement and life--completely beguiling." - Kirkus

"There's much to discover in the varied, well-paced frames of this graphic picture book."- Horn Book"

A vivid, warmhearted picture book...Manning's pages are exuberance itself as her hero balletically bounds from frame to frame." - Publishers Weekly

"[A] charming picture book with graphic-novel elements...The atmospheric illustrations will draw in young readers and make them feel as if they are pushing their way through the crowded streets, climbing up fire escapes, and swinging from laundry lines along with the shoeshine boy." - School Library Journal

"The hustle-and-bustle setting provides another visual treat, matched by the warm exuberance of the boy's neighborly adventure." - Booklist