Book I: The Cellar Summary

Book I, comprised of sixteen short chapters, details the experiences that begin to shape the personality of a young child living in the slums of New York City. David is now almost six and appears to be settled into a typical life in an urban slum. He lives with his parents on the second floor of a three-story flat, the first floor being reserved for the cellar, of which David is horribly afraid. His daily routine involves tearing yesterday's page from the calendar and saving it in a shoe box, playing outside until the noon whistle blows, signaling lunch, and returning outside again until the the whistle blows to signal quitting time. David has a "sometime" playmate, Yussie, who has moved into the flat above his, although they do not appear to have much in common. He...