Mr. and Mrs. O’Grady share everything they have, from their one tattered blanket to the single potato they eat each night for dinner. Their life is lean, but they are content—almost. Each wishes they had a friend: a woman with whom Mrs. O’Grady could chat about recipes and a man with whom Mr. O’Grady could talk about root rot. The day he discovers they are down to their last potato, Mr. O’Grady digs deeper and deeper in the garden, hoping to find another. Instead, he finds a giant pot. When one potato falls in the pot, two potatoes pop out. In goes one hair pin, out come two. With the pot’s magic, the O’Grady’s turn their meager existence into one of comfort (but not excess). Then Mr. O’Grady accidentally trips into the pot and out pops . . . you guessed it! Soon the elderly couple has everything they need, including two friends with whom they couldn’t have more in common. Cynthia DeFelice’s spirited retelling of a traditional folktale has an unfortunate lack of information on the tale’s origins or sources. But it’s a highly entertaining story nonetheless, with suitably spare and wholly engaging illustrations by Andrea U’Ren. (Ages 5–8)

Mr. and Mrs. O'Grady are so poor they have just one of everything to share – one potato a day, one chair, one blanket full of holes, and one gold coin for a rainy day. After digging up the last potato in their patch, Mr. O'Grady comes upon a big black object. It's a pot – no ordinary pot, for what they soon discover is that whatever goes into it comes out doubled! Suddenly the O'Gradys aren't destitute anymore. But what they really long for is one friend apiece. Can the magic pot give them that?

This retelling of a Chinese folktale pays tribute to the author's Irish heritage, and to the joys of an old marriage, new friendships, and the impulse to share. Using pen and gouache, the artist shows the "simple" characters in all their winning complexity.

One Potato, Two Potato is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.