(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. With acute observation and feeling, Brooks captures moments of childhood. Ringgold wisely sets her pictures in the time (1956) and place (the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago) of the original writing. The strong colors help situate the poems both in the real world and the imaginary world of childhood, where a tea party seems to float in the air on a raft of blue.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007

(3) K-3 Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. After witches eat their parents, two siblings go live with their grandma in the woods. One day while Grandma is away, the witches come after the children. The text's repetitive chants and rhythmic prose invite participation, and the exaggerated ugliness of the colorful witches downplays their scariness. An illustrator's note explains the story's basis in the oral tradition.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(3) K-3 In Ringgold's vision of five traditional Christmas carols, including "Silent Night" and the titular carol, royal colors provide the backdrops for the holy family, shepherds, and magi, and unlike in the majority of kids' Christmas books, most of the characters are dark-skinned. An accompanying CD features the carols as recorded in a variety of musical styles by the Boys Choir of Harlem.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke