(4) K-3 Illustrated by Deborah Lanino. Nina and her daddy head off to a fiddle competition where he'll play "Nina's Waltz," the tune he wrote especially for her. But when a wasp sting keeps him from playing, Nina, a fiddler herself, overcomes her stage fright and steps in to take third prize. While the people often appear stiff in the softly focused acrylic paintings, musical notes swirl across the pages, suggesting the transformative powers of music.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Deborah Lanino. A fictionalized, first-person story of the childhood of Maria Mitchell, America's first female astronomer, is recounted in quietly poetic text. Maria longs to "sweep the sky" with a telescope as her father does, instead of sweeping the floor with a broom. Acrylic paintings nicely suit the story's nineteenth-century Nantucket setting and Maria's dreamy but determined nature. An afterword provides more information. Glos.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute