In the charming children's book, The Stitch Elf by George Collier King, a fourth-grade girl and her skeptical doctor find it difficult to separate fantasy from reality when an elf appears in their lives. Alice Day needed stitches for a hand injury. When she is very anxious about getting them removed, an elf comes to the good doctor's assistance, promising Alice rewards for each stitch, and offering to help the doctor with suture removal for all his pediatric patients. The fee for the elf's service seems rather quaint but satisfactory to the doctor. Alice's parents are afraid that the doctor...