I was pleased to see that Ellen Handler Spitz considers Little Black Sambo an underrated children’s story. It was my favorite back in the early 1950s, when I was a child. I loved it because it made me realize that a child could use her intelligence to outwit big, scary things. Although as an adult I am dismayed by the racist elements, as a child I was totally unaware of them and enjoyed the story for what it taught me.