(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Winter retells his father's tales of growing up poor in East Texas. The family enjoyed good times “learning to love those things that didn't cost a single penny.” This window into an era when people took scarcity for granted is effectively visualized in Root's pencil, ink, and watercolor art. Eight vintage snapshots of the family appear on the endpapers.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2012

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root & Barry Root. "Dashing riders, / Brightly dressed. / Racing swiftly, / East and west." Kay's simple rhyming verse describes the history of mail delivery, highlighting the role of the short-lived Pony Express. Invented letters between siblings add a human perspective and a sense of time and place, while the Roots' watercolor and gouache illustrations bring the Western setting to life. An author's note is appended. Timeline.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Oona, cast-off daughter of itinerant tinkers, longs for her own cabin. Because of Oona's lifelong unselfishness, the fairies build her one. Save for a watered-down ending, Hodges's condensed version of Ruth Sawyer's 1941 "The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-Ween" is mainly faithful to the original. Root's watercolors of thatched stone cottages and windswept wintry expanses do justice to a somewhat melancholy holiday story.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2009

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. When a man joins the Union Army, his cow follows him into battle. At first he thinks the cow is a nuisance, but after the man is injured, the cow proves invaluable by providing milk for all the hospitalized soldiers. The colloquial language gives the story, inspired by a real Civil War–era cow, a down-to-earth flavor, and the illustrations add humor.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. In 1937, Sarah and her family, like thousands of other Okies, pile their belongings in a truck and follow Route 66 west. Along the way they meet misfortune, but far from painting a portrait of despair, these hardships take a backseat to the upbeat family portrait that drives this story. The narrative warmth is further conveyed through the homely textures of the illustrations.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2004

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. In Ella and Grandpa's beloved pine barrens, the pinecones are "waiting" for fire to free their seeds and to clear room for the seeds to sprout. When Grandpa dies, Ella grieves but is heartened by the birth of her nephew and by the eventual growth of new trees following a fire. Unsentimental illustrations convey a loving family in this moving story about life, death, and rebirth.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Sweet Almira Case objects when her miserly father decides to kill all the songbirds to keep them from stealing crops. With the help of the schoolmaster and his students, Almira rescues the orphaned fledglings--luckily so, because with the birds gone, the insects take over. The somewhat preachy narrative gets an able assist from the engaging watercolor and pencil illustrations of a colonial town.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. A princess would prefer to be "washed overboard in a storm at sea" than marry a prince she didn't pick out herself. She gets her wish and uses her adventures to entertain a prince--who turns out to be the one originally intended for her. The story lacks tension (the tidy ending is predictable from the start), but the drawings of the princess's travels offer some drama.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. A distinctive new edition of an old favorite, in which a neurotic, sickly little girl grows healthy and happy with the help of Vermont farm living, no-nonsense child-rearing techniques, and Montessori-based schooling. Root's pencil sketches add intimacy and life, and the book design is generous and appropriately old-fashioned. With an introduction to the novel and an afterword on Dorothy Canfield Fisher by Eden Ross Lipson.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. In this newly illustrated edition, a boy living in a Russian village more than a century ago steals a dreidel from an unkempt, ineffectual peddler, realizes his mistake, and learns much about what constitutes a moral, meaningful life when he returns it. The fine storytelling, rhythmic and controlled, is complemented by well-composed illustrations noteworthy for their willowy line and subdued palette.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. In this oft-told tale, a little cowboy gentles and rides a bronco after the pony is pronounced too wild, wily, and mean by three confident bronco busters. The pictures of the horse, at his best and worst moments, outshine the text and give readers both rodeo action and an intimate glimpse of the relationship between the boy and his horse.

Reviewer: Sujei Lugo