This story of dark enchantment, with haunting, larger-than-life illustrations, will hold readers in its spell long after they have turned the last page.... A stick that grants any wish and a magic cap that can read people's thoughts are the farthest things from the old woman's mind as she gathers wood in the forest. That is, until she helps a strange little man she finds twisted in the roots of an old tree. For her kindness he gives her his stick and his cap, and that's when her troubles begin