Carol Beach York

#2

As soon as Binya saw the beautiful blue silk umbrella she wanted it She wanted it so badly that she was willing to give her lucky leopards claw pendant in exchange No-one in the village had such a fine umbrella and everywhere Binya went the umbrella went too Gradually it faded to a pale blue and was patched in several places but there was still many who envied Binya her treasured possession And the most envious of them all was old Ram Bharosa the shopkeeper who decided that by some means he must own the blue umbrella.

#3

It was a hot day and they had already seen the movie at the only theater in town. Yet the game that Julian devised to relieve the boredom--the game of Takers and Returners--was to affect the lives of all the children who took part in it. Julian was fifteen, and thirteen-year-old Ellen had always thought she might marry him someday--that is, until Mother explained that he had a kind of fatal fascination. It was the quality that made you want to follow his leadership. Otherwise, they would never have let the game get out of hand the way it did, for it was an unusual, frightening game, of which the adults would not have approved. In this skillfully written suspense story Carol Beach York provides an atmosphere so full of tension and anxiety that it becomes almost un bearable, and the reader soon realizes that it is also a story of evil and that the game the children play is one no one can win.