The Elevator on 74th Street
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Small Walt meets The Last Stop on Market Street in this picture book about a warmhearted elevator that’s part matchmaker, part friend, and all sweetness.
Every day, Ellie the elevator works tirelessly to make the residents of her building happy. She loves everyone who lives in her building—even the dogs with muddy paws and the over-enthusiastic button-pushers. But Ellie has a soft spot for Thea, who bounces through Ellie’s doors with a cheerful grin every day.
After Thea’s best friend moves away, Ellie rarely sees Thea smile anymore. Ellie wants to cheer Thea up…but what can an elevator do to help? Leave it to Ellie to make Thea’s world better.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ellie the Elevator, whose attentive face is formed by simply rendered architectural details, lovingly serves all of the residents who live in her building—a metropolitan microcosm that Imamura (Love in the Library) depicts with stylishly smudgy, densely colored multimedia illustrations. Ellie loves "the dogs with muddy paws and the man who pushed Ellie's buttons over and over to make her move faster," writes Gehl (Orson and the World's Loudest Library), and she "goes the extra mile" for each of the building's inhabitants. But the elevator holds a special affection for Thea, who arrived as a newborn the day Ellie was installed. When Thea's best friend moves away, Ellie conspires to connect her with a newly arrived peer by creating opportunities for conversation, even malfunctioning so the two are thrown together. After bonding and realizing that their BFF status is all thanks to Ellie, they decorate the elevator with balloons and stars, seemingly sparking an impromptu lobby gathering. Could it be that ordinary and often overlooked objects might secretly be operating with benevolence on a higher floor of consciousness? As fantasies go, it's certainly uplifting. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Erzsi Deak, Hen&ink Literary. Illustrator's agent: Freddie Dawson, Bright Agency.
