(3) 4-6 Mehrigul is left with heavy responsibilities on the farm after her brother flees to avoid persecution by the Chinese government; without school, Mehrigul is terrified that she'll be forced into factory work. Then a glimpse of hope: an American woman offers to buy her baskets. Rich descriptions of Uyghur tribal life are woven into a narrative as unique as Mehrigul's baskets.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Heather Austin. When Lily crafts a basket decorated with a water lily, she expects high praise from her relatives. Instead, each of them admires the basket briefly but says they must return to work since, "many hands make the basket." In this message-y story, Penobscot basketry is shown to be a community effort. The illustrations are occasionally awkward.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli. When a wild wind wreaks havoc in a village of basket weavers, they try unsuccessfully to capture it with their biggest and strongest baskets. Then two children make a basket small and soft enough to lure the wind to sleep inside, and all is well. The ending is a bit long, but the vibrant illustrations create an eye-catching, quirky world.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. A child spends the summer in the Sea Islands and learns to make the traditional seagrass baskets that symbolize the African-American culture of that region. Richly colored paintings evoke setting and interpret character in a diffuse but attractive vignette of the history and traditions of a unique people.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. In explaining to her granddaughter how the art of sweetgrass basket making has been handed down, a grandmother also lyrically recounts her people's history, through slavery to tourist attraction, in the Sea Islands. Lewis's evocative illustrations enhance this story where art, memory, and history intersect. The book includes notes on sweetgrass basket making. Bib.

Reviewer: Deborah L. Thompson

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Yangsook Choi. When Basket Weaver is ordered to weave a bed for the Empress's new baby, he worries that the Emperor won't find it good enough. The Emperor is delighted, however, when he discovers the weaver's cat, Catches Many Mice, inside the basket. The story, told in a formal folktale-like voice and accompanied by lush paintings of an unspecified Asian setting, chronicles the weaver's courage in asking for a just reward.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Barbara Cooney. This account of a New York mountain family at perhaps the turn of the century is nicely framed as history lesson and coming-of-age story. A boy accompanies his father to town to sell their carefully crafted baskets, but his excitement is squelched by epithet-hurling townsmen. The culminating sequence, in which the boy begins to share the calling of their craft, is beautifully conveyed by author and artist alike.

Reviewer: Margaret A. Bush | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 1999