When their fathers fall ill, a group of boys takes over the local store. Now they must outsmart a rival five-and-dime to survive. Mark Tidd rallies his friends to run Smalley's Bazaar for six weeks while the adults recover. Their adversary is Jehoshaphat P. Skip and his new five-and-dime store, a corporate threat arriving in small-town America. The boys respond with an auction, a contest, and sheer scrappy ingenuity. The novel captures the thrill of kid entrepreneurs facing real business competition: there's money at stake, a shrewd adult rival, and the need to prove themselves against doubt. Kelland wrote in 1915, when children could run amok with actual responsibility, and the result is a wonderfully old-fashioned adventure that treats its young protagonists as genuinely capable. For readers who love seeing kids outsmart grown-ups, or anyone who enjoys watching the underdog beat the odds with brains instead of brute force.
