My 5-year-old did not appreciate this book as much as I did. The narrative is simple and starts slow, but builds itself up in layers. Artifacts and characters reappear in their due moment to fulfill their destiny; phrases become incantations that, like a Gregorian chant, build up in number and tension before resolving back to the tonic note of the story (the title, in fact). It gives the book a primeval, mythic quality, a fairy tale in the old sense. A familiar tale you've never heard before.