Akron Public Library

The widow McDowell and her seven-year-old son Thomas ask the gruff Jonathan Toomey, the best wood-carver in the valley, to carve the figures for a Christmas creche.

A novice wood carver is momentarily defeated when people laugh at the result of a winter of work.

Plain Kate's odd appearance and expertise as a woodcarver cause some to think her a witch, but friendship with a talking cat and, later, with humans help her to survive and even thrive in a world of magic, charms, and fear.

In a village where everyone has been carved from wood, an uppity Miss Bess Stovall claims her maple "ancestree" is superior until the day a shunned willow fellow saves her life.

"Everyone in Blackberry Falls knows that Tabitha Stolfus is heir to her dad's wood carving company. To find a man who values more than her purse, Tabitha creates an ad and sends it far from home. But from her first meeting with handsome would-be groom Matthew King, Tabitha realizes this may not be the uncomplicated arrangement she expected. Matthew's true desire is an apprenticeship, not a frau. A talented woodworker, he longs to study with the great...