Sylvester's "only chance of becoming himself again was for someone to find the red pebble and to wish that the rock next to it would be a donkey"—surely the prize predicament of the year and, in William Steig's pearly colors, one of the prettiest. How Mother and Father Duncan (donkey), despairing of finding their son, do eventually break the red pebble's spell and bring back Sylvester is a fable of happy families of all breeds.