PreSchool-K—A circular story about a piece of red chalk and an imaginative but bored child. Sara, unable to draw a satisfactory picture on her bumpy sidewalk, sees that Tim is having more fun playing with his marbles. Instead of discarding the chalk, she tells him that "everything you draw with it will come to life." They make a switch and Sara's claim proves true for him. She doesn't know exactly what to do with the newly acquired marbles, so she trades them for a lollipop, telling a girl that they are pearls from the sea. Sam immediately turns into a smiling mermaid while Sara discovers that the lollipop is cherry, a flavor she doesn't even like. So, she barters again, acquiring a "broken" yo-yo, an "out-of-tune" flute, and a hopscotch board that disappears in the rain. But all is not lost as Sara is again in possession of the red chalk. She uses it to draw a very large hopscotch board that she shares with the other children. Delicate pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations are the highlight of this story and deftly detail the make-believe scenarios the other children enjoy. This "grass-is-always-greener" tale is a conundrum: Sara seems to have a great imagination, but never learns to put it to use for her own entertainment.—Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
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