Family bonds, and kindness from the community, make for a poignant story of two children, Sarah and Simon, and how they help in a time of need. Their father is a talented painter, but unacknowledged, and so the family is poor, though very happy. When the story opens, the father is painting his masterpiece. Sarah and Simon are helpers and spend their time doing chores and visiting their favorite place in town: the old second-hand bookshop with its...