(3) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Four similar-looking mouse brothers--Mick, Rick, Vick, and Nick--wear different-colored shirts so Mother can tell them apart. Patterned sentence structure and word repetition abound as each mouse chooses his favorite food, plans his future career, and picks a flower for Mommy. Textured acrylic illustrations with loose brush strokes capture the critters' personalities and little Nick's valiant efforts to be unique.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Frost's poetic narrative gives equal time to the life cycles of the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant it depends on, emphasizing the mutual relationship between the two during the pollination (plant) and larval (insect) stages. The soft-focus acrylic and pastel illustrations bring readers from plant level up into the sky with the monarchs in flight. Websites.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(3) 1-3 Stepping Stone series. Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Emily discovers that she can travel into the walls of a little playhouse to meet a child who died long ago. This short ghost story is tightly plotted and just eerie enough for independent readers who want to be spooked but don't want to have nightmares. The fantastical elements are easy to follow, the characters are engaging, and the ending is satisfying.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Colonel Lightfoot's dancing is delightful, but a "waggy, braggy tongue" lessens his appeal. When the devil challenges him to dance for a patch of his own land, Lightfoot looks likely to lose until he realizes that the devil's weakness, like his own, is pride. Gore's illustrations evoke courtly eighteenth-century Virginia. A note cites several sources for this witty and nimbly paced traditional tale.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2006

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Zarin's folksy, matter-of-fact retellings of saint stories root the iconic figures firmly in the natural world, emphasizing their humanity. Roughly textured black-and-white portraits of slightly stylized, elongated figures with expressive countenances are formally composed inside thematic borders. The tall, slim book with its gold-colored endpapers is a suitably handsome yet humble package, completed with a brief biographical note on each saint.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. If readers must have Hamlet as prose before they tackle the Bard's challenging poetry, this picture book version is accessible and expertly told. Coville employs rich and elegant language in his retelling, remains faithful to the original plot and characters, and smoothly incorporates lines from the play. The textured illustrations create an atmosphere as brooding as the prince.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) PS Illustrated by Leonid Gore. An elflike child searches for a comfortable place to sleep. He rejects a squirrel's branch (too bumpy), a frog's lily pad (too tippy), and other unsuitable spots until he finds a bed of soft feathers and a lamb to cuddle. Purple hues reinforce the twilight hour in this interactive ("But did he sleep? No!") bedtime story.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. A marzipan child made by a French-Canadian baker becomes the real child of his and his wife's dreams. Beloved little Matine's sugarlike covering seems fragile, that is, until the day she risks it to comfort a sick friend, thus becoming fully human. Though obvious, this tale is sweet (maybe too much so for some) in both content and metaphor. Pale, soft acrylic and pastel illustrations suggest spun sugar.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Mikko has found only a friendly mouse for a bride, while his older brother is to marry a nice-looking farm girl. The mouse, however, is really a princess, bewitched by a spell that can be broken only if one brother wishes to marry her while the other wishes to kill her. Illustrations that manage to be both elegant and amusing accompany this well-told tale. Brief source note included.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. These ten stories from a variety of sources all have spiritual themes. Some, such as Hans Christian Andersen's "The Angel," are only slightly changed, but others differ dramatically from the original. This is a somber collection of stories in which God or angels visit humans to give rewards or teach virtues. Gore's ethereal paintings establish and reinforce the tone of the work.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Sam is in great suspense as he and Uncle Ezra watch master of deception Harry Houdini attempt an underwater escape from a locked trunk. Houdini's own first-person reverie, self-confident and poetic, is interspersed throughout this story about believing in oneself. Although the text and brooding pastel and ink illustrations capture Houdini's mythic power, the book is bogged down by its heavy message.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. A paean to the trees of Israel, this book briefly treats eleven historical periods, from 2100 B.C.E. to the present. Each division includes the events of the period and notes the status of trees during that time, from early abundance, through logged-out WWI, to successful replanting begun in 1948. Soft semi-abstracted illustrations done in acrylics and pencil offer emblematic interpretations of the text. The presentation is handsome but static.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) PS Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Soft, misty artwork creates a quiet, contemplative mood for this Nativity book. The text asks one baby animal after another--as well as a cedar tree and a stone--whether it was born on this day, and each answer is no. At the end of the book, all of the animals gather around a manger, which holds the newborn child. This tranquil Christmas story is a good read for snowy winter days.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Allegory is ill served in this attempt to trace the story of twentieth-century Germany within the outlines of "Sleeping Beauty." Under a curse, a boy and his family sleep through the Second World War and the subsequent division of Berlin, only awakening when the Wall is torn down. The arch and exclamatory prose lacks the gravity demanded by the subject. Only the paintings in this picture book, by turn tender and threatening, do the theme justice.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2000

(4) K-3 Translated by Rosa Zubizarreta. A lonely princess, who's forbidden to play with "common" children, captures a songbird to hear its song. But once caged, the bird stops singing. Letting the bird go, she comes to understand the value of freedom and ventures "beyond the iron gates" herself. Accompanied by acrylic and ink illustrations, this story works for those who don't mind an obvious message.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. When the laird offers a sack of gold to anyone who would sew him a pair of trousers by the light of the full moon in a haunted cemetery, Lucy Dove accepts the challenge, hoping thereby to gain a comfortable retirement. The story's climax is a thriller, indicating how skillfully the teller has polished her story to a mirror-like reflection of her sources. Gore's illustrations are as bewitching as they are haunting.

Reviewer: Mary M. Burns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 1998

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. A remarkable fable about time and love is set long ago in Germany. Fritz, a local writer, tells the company gathered at the tavern a story about the magician and clockmaker Dr. Kalmenius. Pullman's Faustian tale, in which every small event is carefully related to another with the delicate precision of the finest clockwork, is deeply absorbing and aptly illustrated with evanescent ink drawings that complement the gothic atmosphere.

Reviewer: Ann A. Flowers | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 1998