title: The Warthog's Tail
author:  Debby Atwell 
description: Kindergarten-Grade 3Tegan, a witch's daughter, is hurrying home so as not to be late for Trick or Treat, but a large, fearsome warthog is blocking the gate to her house. Though too young to perform magic, she decides to try a few spells to move the animal. First, she commands a passing dog to bite it, but her magic fails and the dog says no. She adds to the spell, and each addition gets more violent, until she is chanting: Match, match burn stick. Stick, stick beat dog. Dog, dog bite warthog so I can get home in time for Trick or Treat. But all refuse to obey her bossy demands. Fortunately, an old man comes by and teaches the girl about the art of persuasion. After some practice, she convinces him to throw the match at the stick and begin her spell. The final picture shows Tegan's mom putting away an old-man disguise before taking her daughter trick or treating. Single-page, bright, overly busy illustrations do little to enhance the choppy text. Readers may be disturbed to find that instead of finding another way to rouse the warthog, the old man goes with Tegan's last resort spell of beating the dog with a burning stick to get him to bite off the warthog's tail.<i>Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ## Fifty-Five: 3032 AD
  
  It was a very grim, very sour Masato Storm who watched the big board in the
  war room. It looked terrible.
  
  Someone moved a chair into place beside him. He glanced up at at a commtech.
  He was holding the chair for Pollyanna.
  
  Mouse smiled weakly. "How are you? Any better?"
  
  "Ready for anything. Except I limp a little. They say it'll go away. How is it
  going?"
  
  "Not good. I haven't heard from Cassius for days. I'm scared for him. And up
  there . . . " He indicated the board showing the Whitlandsund. "We made some
  gains when the first wave came over, but it's slowed down. Way down. We're
  still pushing them back, but not fast enough."
  
  "But you outnumber them."
  
  "We've lost too many tractors. We can't bring our people over fast enough. It
  looks like we've only got two chances. Either Cassius turns up or my uncle
  runs out of ammunition."
  
  "Sir!" one of the commtechs yelled. "Sir, I