Neighbors shake their heads over Jared Austin's odd ways. His father doesn't think he's good for anything much. Even his friend Jennet wonders what will become of him.But Jared isn't concerned; he has his own ideas about what is really important. One day a journeyman painter visits their quiet New Hampshire farm, and his unexpected offer sets Jared aglow with excitement. He starts off on an adventure that takes him miles from home and into experiences that bring him to manhood and deepen his faith. But before he leaves, Jared promises Jennet that someday he wwill come back for her.

    In this time-honored classic, Thornton W. Burgess mixes exciting adventure and good-natured humor with gentle homily to spin a wholesome tale of animal characters that children have found irresistible for generations.Woven into Grandfather Frog's adventures are the daring pranks of Jerry Muskrat, Little Joe Otter, and Billy Mink, the hunting exploits of Longlegs the Blue Heron and Whitetail the Marsh Hawk, and the brave deeds of Danny Meadow Mouse and Striped Chipmunk. Their interwoven stories, newly reset here in large, easy-to-read type, will delight children as they discover, one by one, the many good reasons why Grandfather Frog came to wish he had never, never thought of leaving the Smiling Pool to see the Great World.

    

    Winkle Goes to War. Out of great tragedy mankind distills great humor, and here Theodore Pratt makes a bid for this distinction with a story that is full of wise charm, deep understanding, and chuckling entertainment. Wilbert Winkle, at 44, runs up against the Army when men of that age were still being drafted. He had believed himself a member in good standing of the lost generation between rounds of the world war, too young for the first session and too old for the second. To his considerable surprise and perturbation, Mr. Winkle, a mild, timid little man, myopic, of no great muscularity, and afraid to death of guns or violence of any sort, finds himself a soldier sent overseas to fight.