A Newbery-winning author and a brilliant new artist create a story that young readers will read and perform for years to come. Watch and listen as a grandmother recounts a tale of a resourceful farm girl lost in a blizzard, searching for her dog. As she describes that young girl's hazardous journey, a sequence of string figures takes shape in her hands, illustrating each step along the way. Striking scratchboard illustrations bring the grandmother's story to life, while clear instructions and careful diagrams at the end of the book allow you to recreate the tale, and to hold string figure performances of your own. Paul Fleischman's own intergenerational string troupe, String Quartet, has made Lost! a regular part of its repertoire, and you can too. Grade 2-4-"I'll die!" says a nine-year-old girl when a lightning storm causes a blackout that deprives her of the use of a computer, TV, etc. This prompts her grandmother to tell a story from her own childhood when her life was truly in danger. As a girl she lived an isolated life in the mountains, her only companion a setter dog who liked to roam, and her only toy a piece of string. When the dog failed to return home for several days, she tracked it and became lost in a blizzard. Determined to survive, the girl resourcefully used whatever she could find to acquire food and shelter. Some of the examples provided strain credibility. "Having so much practice changing string into different things, it came natural to her to turn that walking staff of hers into a lever." The narrative is accompanied by illustrations of string figures that correlate to plot elements. A brief history of this ancient pastime, as well as directions for making the figures in the story are provided. Mordan's ink-on-clayboard artwork is well executed and an appropriate accompaniment to this earnest tale. The book would be useful for those wishing to introduce string-figure art or discuss how children might amuse themselves without electricity, but it is otherwise an additional purchase. Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. One night during a storm the power goes off. Suddenly there is no VCR, no TV, no radio, no computer. "Grandmother, I'll die!" the little girl wails. The wise grandmother's response is to put down her knitting and tell a story about a girl of long ago who almost did die in the wake of another storm. To illustrate her story, the grandmother uses a loop of yarn to make eight string figures. Mordan depicts the unfolding action in elegant ink drawings that have the look of woodcuts, while, on facing pages, he features cameo pictures of the string figures that are executed by the heroine of Grandmother's story. Like Fleischman's young adult novel Mind's Eye (1999), this story celebrates the power of the imagination while providing an interactive opportunity for children to participate, because directions for making the string figures are appended. A delightful book for story-hour activity programs. Michael Cart Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved In this story within a story, a grandmother entertains her granddaughter with a string story when the girl laments the loss of electricity during a storm that eliminates all her usual forms of electronic entertainment. The internal story concerns a girl who goes into a snowstorm to find and bring home her wounded dog. She survives due to her wits and resourcefulness. On each page, a string figure becomes a part of the story, with the figure displayed at the bottom of the page in miniature. The grandmother confides that she was the girl in the story and challenges her granddaughter to think of something to do without the use of electricity. In a nice open-ended finale, the girl is seen starting her own string story. Back matter contains a brief history of string figures (the handheld video games of their time), instructions on making a string loop, carefully illustrated step-by-step directions for making each figure, and a bibliography. Fleischman's (Big Talk, 2000, etc.) figures are new inventions, but require common moves. They build on each other and many of them have potential for movement (the bow shoots). The illustrations created in ink on clayboard look like fine etchings and are appropriate to the old-fashioned tale. Unfortunately, a creaky, didactic opening introduces a grandmother whose speech is unbelievably quaint for a 21st-century woman acquainted with modern technology. Nevertheless, this unique book offers several fascinating points of entry and will be enjoyed in many ways. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. ...likely to encourage some serious string twirling. -- The New York Times Book Review , Andrew Leonard Paul Fleischman is one of the best known and most highly respected authors in children's books, and has been awarded both a Newbery and Newbery Honor. His novels and