On the day Peter Stuyvesant sailed into town, the town was a wreck. He saw junk and mud, broken down houses, piles of smelly garbage, dirty animals running loose. And nobody cared. The new governor stomped through the streets, getting angrier by the minute.

"This New World is a mess!"
Peter cried in distress.
"Good Dutchmen. Iloudly decry it!
This whole dirty place is a total disgrace.
Good Dutchmen, we must beautify it!"

The people of New Amsterdam didn't want to obey Governor Stuyvesant'- new laws, but they had to.
And in the end they realized he had been right.

In spirited verse and striking illustrations, Arnold Lobel gives us a vivid picture of "New York" in 1647, of its Dutch citizenry, and of its fascinating Director-General, Peter Stuyvesant.
Children in and out of the classroom will enjoy this entertaining, informative story.

From the dust jacket