(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sean Qualls. In this tale inspired by the Aesop fable "The Bundle of Sticks," blue-haired doll-like Little Cloud longs for a life on earth--until Lady Wind takes her on a tour of the sky and shows her her true worth. The heavy-handedness of the allegorical story is somewhat mitigated by Qualls's lovely and unpretentious blue-and-purple-dominant illustrations.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) 4-6 To black-and-white photographs chronicling the history of African-American segregation and civil rights, Morrison appends captions imagining what those portrayed in each picture might be thinking. It's a dubious exercise, particularly in that several of the photos are of well-known people (Ruby Bridges, Elizabeth Eckford) perfectly capable of speaking for themselves. But the photographs, many of them signal images of the civil rights movement, are beautifully reproduced. Timeline.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre. Nate tells his grandfather, Poppy, that he has a hard time concentrating in school. Poppy then relates, in an overlong cartoon-panel narrative, a tale about saving a snake's life, only to have the snake turn on him. Loosely based on Aesop, Poppy's tale about the virtue of paying attention seems only vaguely relevant to Nate's school dilemma, but the snappy prose and humorous color art are engaging.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre & Pascal Lemaitre. Bearing only a casual relationship to Aesop's, this mouse pulls the thorn from the lion's paw--but then begins to fancy himself the king of the animals. Relayed through comic-strip panels illustrated with engagingly goofy animals, the story is riffed in catchy rhyme ("Friends forever? Forever and ever. You won't eat me? Never. No, NEVER"). Ending with a moral more attuned to our times than Aesop's, the story is overlong but ripe for discussion.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal LeMaitre. Handwritten text and panelled cartoon paintings take a hip-hop look at Aesop's fable, jettisoning the old moral in favor of the open ending suggested by the question marks in the title. Kid A and Foxy G both like hanging in the park, but winter gets Kid A back to his chores while Foxy G keeps making his wings sing until they start to crumble in the cold. Should Kid A take his friend in? Readers pulled in by the comic-book format will stay to debate the question.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton