The partners set their characters in an animated world geared to children 2 to 5 years old.

All of them have set their fictional characters in a place just like Short Hills, but they don't name it.

Graeme Blundell praises the book as "lovely" and commends Nunn for setting "her characters brilliantly within a complex psychological portrayal of a particular time and place."

Sinclair indicted the American system of justice by setting his characters in the context of the prosecution and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.

With bemused ferocity Ms. Stark, author of "The Dealers' Yard and Other Stories," sets her characters down in the domestic ring and lets them loose.

When he sets his characters in action, the book wobbles.

But our first obligation is to create interesting, suggestive, realistic, possibly even challenging situations, set our characters down in them and see where they go.

In almost all his books, he sets his characters around other young men or even older men who speak into their lives.

He merely sets his characters in motion and does so skillfully.

"It's a remarkable record of survival," Mr. Psacharopoulos says, pointing to the subtle but huge distinction that sets Williams's characters apart from 80's women.