During the 1940s and 1950s Marguerite de Angeli was one of America's most popular writers and illustrators of children's books: though her popularity has waned, many of de Angeli's stories and illustrations still have great appeal. De Angeli, along with Lois Lenski, Doris Gates, and a few others, was among the first in the 1930s and 1940s to write books for children about racial, regional, and religious minorities. De Angeli demonstrated considerable courage in helping to extend the subject matter of children's fiction to include minorities. She also made significant contributions to historical fiction, and one of her historical novels, The Door in the Wall, won the Newbery Medal in 1950. De Angeli's plots are sometimes slight in conception, but their slightness is understandable considering the ages of children she most frequently wrote for and considering the love and concern for humanity that her stories and illustrations register. Though...