I couldn’t agree more with Ellen Handler Spitz’s choices for the most overrated and underrated children’s classics. However, I wish that she had mentioned that there are now two excellent alternate versions of Little Black Sambo . Sam and the Tigers , rewritten by Julius Lester, was published by Dial, and The Story of Little Babaji was published by HarperCollins, both in 1996. These books eliminate the offensive stereotypes in language and illustration of the original version.