An odd and strangely fascinating original fairy tale about a boy and a girl found floating in a crystal box begins, "Whether far or near, I can't say, but once there was a poor man living in a kingdom by the sea." The poor man is a fisherman who finds the box and rescues the boy and girl. They each have a star on their forehead, which the man covers with pieces from the red silk apron that the children were wrapped in. But the man dies soon after and as the children grow up alone they are plagued by a witch who tries to separate them. Twice she lures the boy away to dangerous places and twice he returns, having met a stranger each time who tells him how to overcome the danger. But the third time she lures him to the Well of the Wind, and when he doesn't return the girl goes in search of him. Told by a stranger how to reach the Well of the Wind by stepping into a mirror, the girl finds the boy turned to stone in that strange, dreamlike place, and in rescuing him unlocks the secret of their past. The courage and unfailing faith of both children is at the heart of this hypnotic tale illustrated with intriguing and unusual pastel images that cast their own spell on the story. (Ages 8-10)

In language as resonant as bells, a renowned novelist tells of young courage outwitting old evil. To begin, a boy must confront a subtle witch, next, a great cat who sleeps with its eyes open, then, a giant oak encircled by wolves and a worm-all to reach the Well of the Wind. When the boy does not return, his sister starts out alone to seek him. "Who hates you so much that they send you there?" asks a thin stranger when he hears of her brother's quest. The girl journeys on, whistling, and comes to a gate between two trees in the wood of the witch, then a tower filled with rising water, a bird and a bow and arrow, and finally her brother, turned to stone. "We got from that, " the girl tells the boy once she has freed him from the witch's enchantment. "Perhaps we shall get from this." Like all good endings, theirs is both surprising and perfect .