The Chestry Oak is one of several stories by Kate Seredy involving characters and settings from her native Hungary. The Good Master, perhaps her finest book, tells the story of Kate, a spoiled city girl from Budapest who goes to visit her uncle Marton Nagy and his family on the Hungarian plains, where she is transformed by the wholesomeness of farming life. The Singing Tree continues the story of the Nagy family during World War I, when Uncle Marton is called into the army and his son Sandor must learn how to run the farm in his father's absence. The White Stag retells the myth of the original settlement of the Danube Plain by the Magyar tribes who came out of Asia and wandered across the Carpathian Mountains into Europe. Seredy's books set in America lack the strongly conceived characters, themes, and settings that characterize her...