(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cheryl Kirk Noll. Based on the model of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, this story explains how Sufiya and four other women get a collective loan and start five micro-businesses, earning money to better their lives and pay back the loan. The accurate, detailed watercolors display the village setting, the work, and the problems the women must overcome. An author's note goes into greater detail.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Larry Day. When William and his family settle in the New World, local conditions force him to adapt his English-style house to a new, New England style. By compressing this evolution into a single year, the author creates some historically implausible situations and some clumsy dialogue, but the text and Day's artful color illustrations and pen vignettes clearly convey living conditions in 1637.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam