On the island of Cyprus the name "Sippacik" (Sipp-ah-jick) means "very small young donkey." And that is what she was when Rifat found her, newborn, under an olive tree beside her mother. He thought she was the most beautiful donkey in the world, and he was rapturous when Grandfather said, "You found her. She had better be yours."
Rifat trained her to work on the farm, and she seemed the pattern of a well-behaved little donkey—until she became the property of a British battery of the United Nations forces sent in to keep peace on the island.
Hard times had come with the outbreak of the quarrels between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Rifat's father, a Turkish leader, had gone into hiding, leaving twelve-year-old Rifat and his aging grandfather to work the farm alone. Money was scarce, and the "blue berets" were willing to pay a good price for a donkey.
But then she wouldn't work! Rifat was brought to the camp to manage her. And that is how he happened to be on hand when a desperately wounded man near the road from camp begged for his help, and how Sippacik became the heroine of a marvelously exciting rescue.
A "thriller" from the pen of Rumer Godden is a real event, and here it is with fine, authentic drawings by Captain James Bryan, until recently a member of the blue berets in Cyprus.
This is a Junior Literary Guild selection, chosen as an outstanding book for boys and girls (A Group).
—from the dust jacket
In an ageless story constructed with great art, we find the intimate view of childhood imagination, fineness, and sensitivity that gives this author's writing a special means of affecting the reader. Generosity and creativity are roused in quiet Gregory, whose mother has always complained that he "keeps himself to himself." He comes to understand why Marta, new to their kitchen, is always sad, and he resolves, with younger Janet, to make in a corner of their modern kitchen the "good place," with icon, flowers, and lamp such as had glowed in Marta's family kitchen in the Polish Ukraine.
"Don't cry, Marta," he said, expressing a new loving kindness, and he made the icon painstakingly, overcoming setbacks but persisting in seeking out and studying what he needed to copy, in museum, art dealer's, and church. Marta's emotions, more than twenty years after her refugee flight, Gregory's subtle change, and the views of concerned parents blend into a domestic world of extraordinary reality. Each move, each spoken word, counts with precise meaning in a total, haunting creation."
—Horn Book
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