KATIE'S TRUNK
by Ann Turner & illustrated by Ronald Himler
In a true incident from the author's family history, rebel militia ransack a despised Tory family's house for valuables to buy arms. Young Katie hides in her mother's wedding trunk, nearly smothered under layers of clothes. One of the rebels (a neighbor) searches the trunk; discovering Katie, he claims to see Tories coming and, leaving the lid open so the child can breathe, hustles the others out. Told in the unvarnished yet vivid voice of its heroine, taut and poetically economical, a suspenseful story of a child's discovery that even enemies may be capable of goodness. Himler's gentle hues impart a misty, long-ago feeling, but he also nicely catches the story's drama in his carefully composed watercolors. (Picture book. 6-10)