(2) K-3 Illustrated by Holly Meade. Queenie's husband walked off after the simultaneous births of their fifteen daughters. Unfazed, Queenie is a hard-working single mother who indulges her daughters to the max. The message concerning the competent, ever-coping mother is hardly subtle, but the repetitive litanies and comical accumulations of detail keep this engaging tall tale light, as do the airy pen lines dappled in cheerful watercolors.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2002

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Fabian Negrin. In an elegant tale based on the Greek mythological character Pandora, a witch grants a young couple their wish to have a child. Dora's protective parents place tokens of everything that is evil and sad into a box so their child will never know unhappiness. Dora eventually opens the box, learning the compassion that accompanies knowledge of evil as well as goodness. Spare, richly hued pictures suit a story that is both fairy tale and fable.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute