Books with author Jean Merrill

In this charmingly illustrated picture book, Addy learns a powerful lesson about staying open to exploring, accepting, and even appreciating things she is convinced she does not like. Thinking she hates all cats, Addy is confronted with an opportunity that changes her mind. Overcoming her prejudice allows Addy to experience something wonderful, a lesson that can be translated to all areas of life. As you read this story with your child, age appropriate discussion of this principle can naturally flow. This simple story of a stray cat and a little girl who learns to love it will help your child understand that prejudice in any form can profoundly limit the love and beauty in your life.

The Pushcart War is a popular children's novel by the American writer Jean Merrill, illustrated by Ronni Solbert[1] and published by Harper & Row in 1964. It is Merrill's best known work.[1] The story is written in the style of a historical report from the future, looking back at the earlier events of a "war" on the streets of New York City between trucking companies and pushcart owners who use pea shooters as weapons to disrupt the trucks. Merrill said the idea for the novel brewed in her for several years while she lived in Greenwich Village.[1] She said the truck traffic there was oppressive and she fantasized about flattening the tires out with pea shooters.[1] She had an epiphany and thought that "What you feel about the trucks is what everybody feels about bullies," and from there she began writing the novel.[1] Merrill won a Fulbright Fellowship in 1965 for it.[1] It won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1964)[2] and was a Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (1965).[3]