content: One illustration in this otherwise innocent tale clearly depicts Gypsies as "wood people" who, the text says, will "take" children if they wander into the forest. It is unfortunate to see such blatant stereotyping --- in an age when the Romany (Gypsy) population of Eastern Europe is the target of more hate crime than at any time since the Holocaust. It's too bad that so many children's authors remain completely insensitive to the slavery and poverty suffered by the Rom. Discerning readers can help by avoiding books that include any kind of sterotyping.---Alyssa A. Lappen