Can a children's book be about the stupidity of greed, cowardice, courage, valor, self-sacrifice, personal redemption and the value of the earth and its elements?THE THREE THIEVES AND THE MAGIC TEARS is.Our three thieves begin a journey to kidnap a magical little old woman with the remarkable gift of her tears falling as diamonds. To find her they are led to the four corners of the dark forest. They meet frightening circumstances in each land, beginning with a giant White wolf and four starving pups in the Land of the North. They must prevail or become food for the wolves. In the Land of the East they are met by fairies, elves and people who walk on air to avoid bubbling pools of scalding water. They learn about wind that is used to talk with other villages, the wind that aids them to climb a mountain, and a hurricane that once again almost destroys them. In the Land of the South they come perilously close to dying of thirst because of their ignorance of the desert. They meet the people of the south called Firewalkers and a wisewoman with a red hot finger of truth. In the Land of the West they finally find a watery, diamond strewn pathway that will lead them to the magic old woman. Their transformation begins when they meet Nana Ida who sends them on a journey of redemption where each of them must face the things that terrifies them the most. They must pass the grotesque Guardians of the Pool of Transformation. Each Guardian forces them to face their personal nightmares. How they survive brings the climax of the story, but not necessarily the end of the tale.