Having no money, a thirteen-year-old begins a series of swaps to get the child he babysits for a pair of cowboy boots.
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Twelve-year-old Eric Greene needs $17.99, fast, because he can't let cheerful little Jimmy, whom he babysits, go without the red and black cowboy boots he's lost his heart to—though Jimmy will never walk. How to get such a sum? Living with his father on a shoestring budget, Eric can count only three things all his own. But these might be swapped—for things that might be swapped for still more things to swap.
Thus begins a series of wheelings and dealings that Eric hopes will parlay his tiny assets into that pair of boots. Meanwhile, he gets to know old friends better and meet some fascinating new ones. Most important, Eric learns some surprising things about himself- which makes the seventeenth swap the best of all.
In this touching and suspenseful story of a boy's ingenuity and perseverance, Eloise McGraw, author of Hideaway and The Money Room, among other books, gives young readers a tale that is sure to delight and involve them.
—from the dust jacket
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