An odd and strangely fascinating original fairy tale about a boy and a girl found floating in a crystal box begins, "Whether far or near, I can't say, but once there was a poor man living in a kingdom by the sea." The poor man is a fisherman who finds the box and rescues the boy and girl. They each have a star on their forehead, which the man covers with pieces from the red silk apron that the children were wrapped in. But the man dies soon after and as the children grow up alone they are plagued by a witch who tries to separate them. Twice she lures the boy away to dangerous places and twice he returns, having met a stranger each time who tells him how to overcome the danger. But the third time she lures him to the Well of the Wind, and when he doesn't return the girl goes in search of him. Told by a stranger how to reach the Well of the Wind by stepping into a mirror, the girl finds the boy turned to stone in that strange, dreamlike place, and in rescuing him unlocks the secret of their past. The courage and unfailing faith of both children is at the heart of this hypnotic tale illustrated with intriguing and unusual pastel images that cast their own spell on the story. (Ages 8-10)