When a Hutzul peasant becomes lost in the woods in this folktale from Ukraine, he stumbles across a three-eyed witch, and is aided in getting home, in return for his promise to repay his debt by giving the witch his most prized possession. This turns out to be his daughter Larissa, who must slave away for Three Eyes and her two daughters, One Eye and Two Eye. Fortunately, the beautiful young girl has a magical talking goat to aid her in her troubles. But what will happen when Three Eyes discovers this caprine helper, and kills it...?

According to author Eric A. Kimmel's brief author's note, this story, which is quite similar to one found in the Brothers Grimm, was passed down to him by his grandmother, who heard it in the Ukrainian town of Kolomyya. The Hutzuls (or Hutsuls), are a Slavic ethnic group that has sometimes been identified as a sub-group of the Ukrainians, but who regard themselves as related to the Rusyns (or Ruthenians). Leaving that aside, this was an interesting story, and had many elements - the child who is repayment of their parent's debt, the magical animal helper who continues to aid the hero/heroine even after death - that will be familiar to folklore lovers. The accompanying artwork from Dirk Zimmer, who also illustrated such titles as Alvin Schwartz's In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories and Joanna Cole's Bony-Legs, had a cartoon-like quality that was quite interesting, even when not quite to my taste. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to picture-book readers interested in Eastern European/Slavic lore. ( )

A man promises a witch his most precious possession. He does not realize until after he promises that he must give the witch his daughter. His daughter is made to be a servant for the witch, three eyes, and her two daughters, one eye and two eyes. She eventually gets to make a wish a wishes to go back to her father's house. The three witches are never seen again. There is a definite repetition of three's, which seems to be common in many fairytales. The theme is good overcoming evil, which also is fairly common in this genre. ( )

This story is a retelling of the fable involving a sacrifice of a beloved child. The author elaborates on this relevance in his author's note. This story is a Hutzul folktale about a man who ventures into a forest and gets lost. He comes upon a group of witches who agrees to help him find his way back home; but on condition. He has to offer them something which he finds to be most precious to him; which is his daughter. He agrees but realizes the consequences once he gets home. The daughter agrees and travels to meet the witches. She then becomes their slave. There is a tragic moment in the story when the goat gets killed by the witches. I thought this part was really sad. Well, after the goat dies, he promises to watch over the Larissa. A prince arrives on a horse and takes Larissa as his bride. The upset witches take their anger out on a tree which gets struck by lighting thus killing the witches. The moral of this story was that people who are bitter and mean will incur bad luck and unfortunate consequences to themselves as well as loved ones. (at least that is the lesson which I learned from the story) ( )