Oakland & Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Author's first novel, a compelling and often beautiful story for older children and for the whole family, set in Liberia - a story told by an African father to his son about the disaster that follows a night when a baby with smallpx was abandoned in his family's home. INSCRIBED on the half title page 'For...... you owe me one story' and dated in 1987. ISBN: 0-395-318572.