Small, peculiar children with enormous gifts parade through this storybook of almost self-contained chapters, set down amidst alternating pages of whimsical full-color and b&w illustrations. Lindalou, born with a golden hammer and nail in her hands, amazes everyone with her skilled wooden creations; Andy, previously overlooked because of his alleged shyness, becomes a lion tamer; Valentina paints portraits of people, not as they are but as she believes them to be, and they are transformed; Ignatius (of the title piece) can smell danger and thus save lives; Ferdinand's curiosity and a magic pair of spectacles lead to his greatness in the field of medicine. Fienberg plants her tongue strategically near her cheek in chronicling the children's fairly mild dilemmas and includes a golden spider to bind the tales lightly together and supply a little extraneous magic. The greatest treasures may be the observations of the adults who, either oblivious or enamored of their children's skills, buoy the tales with almost every comment. (Picture book. 6-9)
