Dragons & Dreams: A Collection of New Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories

These anthologists, veterans all, have assembled a varied collection of 10 original stories, most of them gentle fantasies with a welcome touch of humor and imagination. Bruce Coville offers an appealing parable of a small boy entrusted by an angel with a special box. Patricia McKillip relates the bargain that the witch Baba Yaga must make with a sorcerer's son, after the crone's magic house shuts her out. In Dianne Wynne Jones's alternate world, recalling both Little Nemo and The White Hotel, child prodigy Carol Oneir's dreams have become bestsellers, only they've stopped and she can't get her dream cast back to work. Diane Duane also considers alternate worlds but her adventurous children take the New York City subway to reach them. Included as well are tales by Yolen, Monica Hughes, Charles de Lint and Zilpha Keatley Snyder. (10up)