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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

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)

CCBC Choices 2007 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2007. Used with permission.