Jessie Willcox Smith's work is enjoying somewhat of a welcome resurgence. Her knack of capturing the innocence and purity of childhood is a refreshing counterpoint to the publicized horrors of today's news. She seemed able to capture something in children that even those closest to them had missed...my mother-in-law, who is at present nearly 94 years old, appears in this book twice: one painting of her was done at age three, and the other at age six. She refers to the painting of herself at age six, which hangs in her office area in her assisted living residence, as "me in my better days."