More of the Right Stuff

Popular characters and subjects return in companion volumes and new series installments. Marilyn Singer and Meilo So team up again in How to Cross a Pond: Poems About Water, a companion to Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth. Singer's evocative verses conjure a watery world, as in these lines from "What Water Can Be": "A furrow that's filling/ Water, collective/ Your face in the puddle/ Water, reflective/ A network of rivers/ Water, connective." So's watercolors flow across the pages in washes of blue. (Knopf, $14.95 48p ages 8-12 ISBN 0-375-82376-X; Aug.)

The Barker Twins are back in Tomie dePaola's Trouble in the Barkers' Class. Morgie and Moffie and their classmates welcome new student Carole Anne, until it turns out she's mean to everyone—especially Morgie. The children try cutting Carole Anne out of their fun until Morgie discovers she's just lonely and scared and finds a way to be her friend. (Putnam, $14.99 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-399-24164-7; July)

For youngest schoolgoers, D.W.'s Guide to Preschool by Marc Brown should help pave the way. Arthur's spunky younger sister has no trepidation about bidding farewell to her mother first thing in the morning ("The parents come back when we're finished. It's no big deal"), and she lays out a typical day so that preschoolers know what to expect. Cheery watercolors of human and animal classmates depict songs and games during circle time, snack break and playground activities. (Little, Brown, $15.95 32p ages 3-6 ISBN 0-316-12069-3; July)

Lauren Thompson and Buket Erdogan continue their Mouse's First series with Mouse's First Day of School. Mouse hides in a child's backpack and discovers all the fun to be had in a kindergarten classroom full of books, paints, blocks and more. The very simple text and exuberant illustrations may help to alleviate some brand-new students' jitters. (S&S, $12.95 32p ages 2-6 ISBN 0-689-84727-0; July)

Jane Dyer sends the hero of Little Brown Bear Won't Take a Nap! out into the world in Little Brown Bear Won't Go to School! The charming protagonist would rather find a job like Mama and Papa, and Dyer amusingly portrays his misadventures at a diner run by a pig, a sheep's knitting store and more. The hero finally returns to the place he belongs (where clever readers will spot the pig and sheep's offspring, among others). (Little, Brown, $15.95 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-316-19685-1; July)

A more eager student can be found in the oversize board book Biscuit Loves School Giant Lift-the-Flap by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illus. by Pat Schories. The lucky pup joins in a fun-filled day of painting, reading, learning and making friends, and young readers have 50 flaps to lift to uncover delicious details (such as what's inside the children's lunch boxes). (HarperFestival, $9.99 12p ages 3-6 ISBN 0-06-009454-0; July)

In It's Not My Fault!, Nancy Carlson takes a chestnut of a premise—(succinctly summed up in the title) to offer a comic parable on personal accountability. George the rabbit (from Harriet and George's Christmas Treat) is called to the principal's office, he assumes it's the latest in a cascade of woes which have descended on his purportedly blameless head since the alarm clock failed to wake up him up for school that morning. The illustrations, however, inform readers that George had a part in the proceedings. (Lerner/Carolrhoda, $15.95 32p ages 4-6 ISBN 1-57505-598-8; Aug.)

Little Daruma and Little Daikoku by Satoshi Kako, trans. from the Japanese by Richard McNamara and Peter Howlett, follows their previous Little Daruma books across the Pacific. Here, Little Daruma envies Little Daikoku's magic mallet (a traditional toy in Japan), which delivers a shower of treats when shaken. "Shake the magic mallet" the two chant, "Shakey shakey, shake, shake./ Make a wish for what you want,/ Wishy, wishy, wish, wish. Hey!" Once again, Little Daruma tries to replicate the object of envy, but his greed causes problems. Only when the two cooperate does Little Daruma get his wish. (Tuttle, $10.95 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-8048-3351-6; Aug.)

Keith Faulkner and Jonathan Lambert, the team behind The Five Senses and The Monster Who Loved Books pair up again for the paper-over-board lift-the-flap, Tap! Tap! Tap! When the titular sound echoes through the forest, mothers ask their babies if they are the cause. Readers lift the flaps to see that the baby animals are not to blame, and the final gatefold discloses the culprit (a woodpecker fashioning a totem pole). (Barron's, $8.95 14p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-7641-5643-8; July)

They'll Believe Me When I'm Gone, by Amy Axelrod, illus. by Jack E. Davis, brings back Max and his awful older sibling (from My Last Chance Brother) in a new comic fantasy. Max, waiting for aliens to take him away, imagines all the ways in which his new family will be superior to his present one (he'll never have to eat broccoli or wear underwear, etc.). Imaginative details and wacky, exaggerated artwork depict Max on a two-week space adventure, leaving behind a purple alien counterpart. (Dutton, $15.99 32p ages 5-8 ISBN 0-525-46660-6; July)

The third volume in the Unsolved Mystery from History series, Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, once again invites readers to use their detective skills to solve a puzzle from the past. In this intriguing entry, English colonists at Roanoke vanish sometime between 1587 and 1590, accompanied by atmospheric pencil and watercolor artwork. (S&S, $16.95 32p ages 6-up ISBN 0-689-82321-5; July)

Jim Arnosky's All About series goes underwater with All About Sharks. Arnosky presents many fascinating facts about these masters of the deep, beginning with the nine most familiar species and including information on shark senses, mating habits and safety tips for swimmers. His acrylic paintings showcase their beauty and menace. (Scholastic, $15.95 32p ages 4-10 ISBN 0-590-48166-5; July)

Greg Tang presents the fifth book in the series begun with The Grapes of Math, Math-terpieces, illus. by Greg Paprocki. Under a reproduction of a well-known painting, a rhyming text gives information about the artist and poses a mathematical challenge to group objects in various ways; for example, "April Showers" features a Renoir painting titled The Umbrellas, and asks readers to group different numbers of umbrellas to make nine. An inventive way. Kids can bone up on their addition skills while getting an introduction to art history. (Scholastic, $16.95 32p ages 5-10 ISBN 0-439-44388-1; July)

Traditions from Many Lands

A group of new volumes gathers gems from places and cultures around the world. The Stories from Where We Live Series adds The Great Lakes, ed. by Sara St. Antoine, illus. by Trudy Nicholson, which explores the region that stretches from Minnesota east to Niagara Falls. Organized into sections with titles such as "Adventures" and "Reapers and Sowers," this collection of poems, stories and essays from early Ojibwe storytellers to contemporary urban authors reflect the four seasons—such as Ellen Creager's "The Ice Deer" about a deer trapped on the partially frozen surface of Lake St. Clair and watching a Fourth of July display over Lake Michigan in "Fireworks!" by Katherine Crawford Roby. The volume reflects an ecologically and culturally diverse area from a variety of perspectives. (Milkweed, $19.95 258p all ages ISBN 1-57131-639-6; July)

A symphony of young Native American voices emerges in Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming: Stories and Poems by American Indian Teens and Young Adults, ed. by Annette Piña Ochoa, Betsy Franco and Traci Gourdine, with an introduction by Simon Ortiz. Memories of the past, pictures of the present (in both natural and urban settings) and hopes for the future interweave in this moving volume that includes tribes from the Chippewa to the Navajo to the Mohegan to the Inuk. The search for an identity that connects to Native traditions informs many selections, as in these lines from the poem "Who Am I?": "Who am I?/ I hear tales of my ancestors/ I feel my chest fill with pride/ Knowing where I am from/ But…/ I can never live as they did/ So my past is my past/ Who am I?" (Candlewick, $16.99 160p ages 12-up ISBN 0-7636-1518-8; Aug.)

On a more whimsical note, The Barefoot Book of Monsters!, retold by Fran Parnell, illus. by Sophie Fatus, offers six scary encounters with outlandish creatures including "The Terrible Chenoo" of Algonquin legend, "The Abominable Snowman" from Nepal, and "The Feathered Ogre" from Italy. Parnell's lively retellings evoke their origins with a light touch, focusing more on fun than fear. Fatus's whimsical illustrations move with the rhythms of the bouncy text. (Barefoot, $19.99 64p ages 5-9 ISBN 1-84148-178-5; Sept.)

For older readers, the paper-over-board Cloud Weavers: Ancient Chinese Legends by Rena Krasno and Yeng-Fong Chiang, opens a window on China's age-old traditions and tales. Historical yarns, folktales, stories reflecting Chinese values, and selections from literature (23 in all) introduce readers to figures from the Moon Goddess to Confucius to "The God of Poets, Li Bai." Reproductions of rare posters from the first half of the 20th century, originally commissioned by Western companies looking to influence Chinese consumers, illustrate each selection. (Pacific View [415-285-8538], $22.95 96p all ages ISBN 1-881896-26-9; July)

Legends from another ancient culture fill A Pocket Dictionary of Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses by Richard Wolff. More than 40 deities are grouped into categories such as "The Twelve Olympians," "Gods Among Humans" and "Foreign Gods and Goddesses" (which includes an entry on "The Christian God"). For cases in which the Greeks and Romans shared a god, the Greek name is listed first, as in "Hermes/Mercury." Photos of ancient vases, paintings, sculptures and more, depicting the appropriate god, adorn each entry. (Getty, $9.95 48p ages 8-12 ISBN 0-89236-706-7; Sept.)

Bulgarian artist Iassen Ghiuselev does a haunting rendering of the Brothers Grimm's The Queen Bee, trans. by Elizabeth James, the classic tale of three brothers who seek adventure and the kind youngest brother who wins the hand of a princess. Ghiuselev's stone figures (those who failed in completing the tasks necessary to marry the king's daughter) are nearly as animated as the live characters. The youngest brother's kindness seems to emanate from the page, and draw to him nature's creatures, who help him fulfill his tasks. (Simply Read Books, [Words, dist.], $16.96 32p ages 6-11 ISBN 0-9688768-4-6; July)