This collection of fourteen stories and one minidrama features children protagonists, talking birds, and extraordinary occurrences. Like the tales of Charles Perrault and the brothers Grimm, they speak to fantasies and fears that are our constant companions in life, which means that although they are peopled with children protagonists, they are not for children alone. The introduction provides background on Concha Castroviejo and considers her production of juvenile literature in mid twentieth-century Spain and in relation to authors like Elizabeth Mulder and Maria Luisa Gefaell; it then takes up themes in the book and discusses them. The Spanish author Concha Castroviejo (1910-95) was born in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela. After studies at the university there and in France, she fled to Mexico with her husband following the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and did not return to Spain until 1950. She published two Those Who Went Away (Los que se fueron, 1957) and Eve of Hate (Vispera del odio, 1959), both with the Spanish Civil War as background; two children's The Garden with Seven Gates (El jardin de las siete puertas, 1961) and Lina's Days (Los dias de Lina, 1971); and short fiction, literary criticism, and journalism in La Estafeta Literaria, Insula, Q. P., La hoja del Lunes, and Informaciones. Her writings received a number of literary prizes and her works have been translated into French, Slovak, and English.

With an introduction by Carolina Fernández Rodríguez.