t was a year that held for sixteen-year-old Margret in particular, both joy and sorrow. She found real satisfaction in entering Mrs. Almut's Great Danes in two important shows and in raising several young animals which were her very own. The year brought Margaret new friends as well "€"among them the resourceful young schoolmaster with his plan for rebuilding a bombed out farm, and the American woman, working in Germany with the Friends' Service Committee.

As in The Ark, her previous book about the Lechow family, Mrs. Benary mirrors the slow changes of the season, come war or peace, the burgeoning of life in the spring and with it a renewal of hope. Once again she creates real people whose joys and disappointments are universally understood, and above all she leaves her readers a sense of courage and faith all too rare in books today.