"The family drama captures that universal immigrant experience in which the child must help the adult interpret the new world, while the wise adult still has much to teach the child about enduring values".--"ALA Booklist". An "American Bookseller" "Pick of the Lists". Illustrations.

Sparse text and contained drawings visually represent how truth, unadorned, lacks pretense but is firmly held by integrity. Ping's confusion while experiencing failure at something at which he normally excelled is an important part of this tale's lesson; he chose persistence over deception which proved the noblest decision.

In the first of the Maurice series, rich illustrations offer an inventive depiction of Aesop's, "A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks truth." Creative and memorable.

That was the summer the boy lost a baseball under a tomato plant in Mr. Bellavista's garden. And someone tossed a tomato back instead of the baseball. A lively battle took place, which seemed like great fun at the time, but in the end Mr. Bellavista's garden had been destroyed. In a touching story of one boy's efforts to make amends, we see the rebuilding of a garden and the forming of a relations ...

Based on the thrilling, but miscalled final quarter events of an actual 1940 game, this realistic fiction will enthrall diehard football fans and induce some soul searching--which way would they vote knowing it could cost them the championship?