(4) K-3 Illustrated by Deborah Nourse Lattimore. When mice destroy Sasha's rag doll, her box-maker grandfather replaces it with a wooden thumbling doll. He goes on to make successively larger nesting dolls to protect the smaller ones from predators. Set in old Moscow, this affectionate tale, which features humorous, if at times awkwardly rendered, illustrations, is as much about intergenerational love as about the matrioshka doll's creation.

Reviewer: Pamela McCuen