Eric Greene lives with his widower father. On Saturday, he spends the day with Jimmy, a crippled boy he babysits. Jimmy has fallen in love with a pair of cowboy boots he's seen for sale in a newspaper ad. Much as he wants them, he knows he'll never have them.
Except, Eric wants to get them for Jimmy now. Just to do something nice for someone. But Eric doesn't make much and by the time he could save up enough from what little he gets from babysitting, the sale would be long over.
However, Eric begins to think. There's things people around town want and things they'd give. Why not start swapping around until he has something he can sell for enough money for the boots?
Eric only has a week. Can he get it done in time?
You know what I was reminded of? The Donald Duck comic story "Maharajah Donald" in which the nephews trade pencil stubs for tickets to India and 500 pounds of cat food. Of course, Eloise's story is a bit more believable and goes through the entire process while Carl Barks made some big skips.
Again, Eloise gets inside Eric's head and lets us in on his frustrations and how he plans the swaps out.
So, The Seventeenth Swap is another excellent work by Eloise McGraw, demonstrating how obstacles can be overcome if you can make a plan and make it work.
Nice to see these McGraw blogs ;)
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