Books published by publisher The Viking Press, Inc.

Publisher's Note from dust jacket: "There was magic in that box of pancake flour. Charles was sure that if he just knew how, he could make French crepes for Mardi Gras, the crepes they always had to celebrate the day before Lent in Paris. But how to make French crepes from a package of ordinary American pancake flour - that was the puzzle. Charles could read French quite well - he was just ten years old - but he couldn't read English, and all the directions on the box were printed in English. "It was a difficult problem that required deep thought, but Charles was equal to it. He not only solved the problem, but he kept the surprise for his mother and little sister Zezette, and made very good friends of two American GI's besides."

Marta is unhappy. For quietly aloof Gregory and his sister Janet, Marta, with her thick Ukrainian accent, her good cooking, and her stories, is the anchor of the house. Mother and Father, both busy architects, are gone all day and sometimes at night. Marta is always there; and the children, sensing her unhappiness, do not want her to go away. When they find out that Marta desires a good place in the kitchen, nine-year-old Gregory, with precocious young Janet in tow, sets out to find her a Ukrainian icon in busy, modern London. Master storyteller Rumer Godden deftly brings to life a portrait of a lonely boy discovering the creative power of love.