(4) K-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter. This book tells of Priscilla, a girl born a slave whose mother is sold away from her. To comfort the girl, Old Sylvia teaches Priscilla how to make dolls from the hollyhocks her mother planted. The telling is sometimes poetic, sometimes stilted ("I'd never heard of 'rithmetic"). Sweeping acrylic illustrations show Priscilla's determination. An author's note gives more history.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter & Anna Alter. Mem is not happy when her big brother, Ike, following the bad-boy lead of a friend, squishes a firefly to make a "lightning ring." Plagued like Lady Macbeth with the stain of the squish, Ike doesn't feel too good about himself. Ike and Mem remain so much themselves in this telling that new fans and those already familiar with their previous outings won't feel preached at and will applaud Ike's hard won--and imaginative--penance and absolution.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter & Anna Alter. Ike is angry about all the chores he and his sister, Mem, have to do when they visit their grandparents' farm, but announcing his anger in the cornfield only results in feelings of guilt and imagined whisperings. The series is generally appealing in its eccentricities, but this entry seems a little dark and tonally confused: the grandparents are hard on the poor kids, so why do Ike and Mem feel guilty?

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter. When Spring, a mouse, grows up, she receives an heirloom purple ribbon from her grandmother; the tales describe the uses Spring and her four babies find for the ribbon. The focus in this gentle chapter book is more on emotion than on action. Alter's softly colored illustrations of mice dressed in human clothes suit the quiet, sentimental tone of the text.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(1) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter. Threat of a tornado provides structure and suspense to this finely tuned chapter book about big brother Ike and younger sister Mem (The Bird Shadow). For two nights, Ike keeps himself awake watching TV, just in case a tornado comes and he has to wake the family. By the time the tornado hits, on the third night, Ike is fast asleep. Illustrated with black-and-white drawings, the writing is all the more telling in its spareness.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2003

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter. This finely tuned chapter book about big brother Ike and younger sister Mem is more vignette than story, but its picture of how best friends fight over nothing (Buzzy and Ike are trying to rebuild their treehouse after the tornado documented in The Tornado Watches hits) is perceptive, and it's fun to watch Mem, who gets left out of the rehab effort, patiently get a bit of her own back. The text is illustrated with black-and-white drawings.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2003

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Anna Alter. This measured story tells of Ike and his little sister Mem, who return to a supposedly haunted house after a friend breaks a shed window. They're confronted by Mr. Hawkins, the owner, whose pigeons live in the shed. One of the birds follows Ike home; mild trouble ensues until Ike tells his parents and the whole family meets Mr. Hawkins. Static black-and-white illustrations accompany the quiet text.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian