Welcome Back!

Leading a quartet of reissues is Shy Charles by Rosemary Wells. "Readers will find this quiet hero and his winsome smile beguiling proof that shyness does not preclude competence," said PW of the book first published in 1988. (Viking, $15.99 32p ages 3-7 ISBN 0-670-88729-3; June)

Doll lovers of all ages will welcome the alphabet book homage A Is for Annabelle by Tasha Tudor, starring an exquisitely appointed doll and her accoutrements. Originally published in 1954, the volume alternates full-color spreads with b&w drawings, all steeped in Tudor's customary charm. (S&S, $16 64p all ages ISBN 0-689-82845-4; July)

Father Fox's Pennyrhymes (1971) by Clyde Watson, illus. by Wendy Watson, with its delicately framed watercolor-and-ink vignettes of animal friends and families, brims with as much wit and charm as ever. (HarperCollins, $15.95 64p all ages ISBN 0-06-029501-5; Aug.)

Told from the point of view of William Tell's son, Walter, the 1952 Newbery Honor book The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff recounts the 1291 Swiss struggle for freedom. Full-color and b&w illustrations highlight key points in the drama (including Tell aiming his bow and arrow at an apple atop Walter's head) as well as the breathtaking Swiss landscape. (Houghton, $16 80p ages 8-12 ISBN 0-618-12807-7; $5.95 paper -12809-3; July)

Interactive Fun

Two titles in the Chalk It Up to Learning series by Stephanie Weeks encourage children to fill in the blanks on the sturdy "blackboard" pages with chalk (included). In I Like Writing! for instance, children draw a picture of their families, then, on the opposite page, describe what they like to do together. I Like Numbers! invites children to fill in a numberless clock. (Charlesbridge, $8.95 each 10p ages 3-8 ISBN 1-57091-366-8 ; -365-X; July)

Readers can grab a basket and the 10 traceable cookies on the inside cover of Red Riding Hood's Math Adventure by Lalie Harcourt and Ricki Wortzman, illus. by Capucine Mazille, and join the red-caped heroine on her trip to Grandma's house. Various fairy tale characters dot the path, and youngsters must choose whether to give away 2, 1, or 0 cookies—to each, with the aid of a die-cut wheel—then subtract to determine the remainder. (Charlesbridge, $14.95 24p ages 5-10 ISBN 1-57091-477-X; July)

A simple story connects five tunes in Play-Along Farm: Board Book & Xylophone by Richard Powell, illus. by Simone Abel. The book opens like a songbook above the instrument, with numbered notes that correspond to the numbers on each of the xylophone's colorful chimes. (S&S/Little Simon, $12.95 12p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-689-84303-8; May)

Children will have fun searching the farmyard (and peeking under 17 flaps) with the adorable group of pigs in Where Is Little Harry? A Hide-and-Seek Book with Flaps by Graham Philpot. (Candlewick, $12.99 20p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-7636-1439-4; June)

Youngsters can count backwards, lift flaps and watch Bandit and Spike get ready for bed in just 10 minutes in Countdown to Bedtime by Mike Haines, illus. by David Melling. For "Have they brushed their teeth?" with only two minutes left, a flap reveals that the toothpaste is stuck on Spike the porcupine's quills, under his bathrobe. (Hyperion, $12.99 16p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-7868-0741-5; May)

From Literacy to Literature

Two books for adults pay tribute to children's books and to the artists and writers who create them. In Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, bestselling picture book author Mem Fox extols the benefits of reading to preschoolers—even newborns—and gives suggestions for helping children learn to read by themselves. Line drawings by Judy Horacek inject some levity. (Harcourt/Harvest, $23 164p ISBN 0-15-100624-5; $12 paper -601076-3; Sept.)

The reference work The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, edited by Bernice E. Cullinan and Diane G. Person, includes 1,200 entries, from "Aardema, Verna" to "Zwerger, Lisbeth." Topical articles treat such themes as "High-Interest Easy-Reading Book Series" and "Indian (East) Literature." Groups of b&w author photos are interspersed. (Continuum/Giniger, $150 872p ISBN 0-8264-1271-8; May)

Windows to the Past

Three nonfiction titles explore key moments in history. Neeluk: An Eskimo Boy in the Days of the Whaling Ships by Frances Kittredge, charts a year in the lives of the Inupiat people in the late 1880s, beginning in July when the villagers move from igloos to tents made of walrus hide, and ending in June when the first whaling ships arrive to trade for needed supplies. Alaskan artist and activist Howard "Weyahok" Rock's oil paintings, which open each chapter, record a forgotten way of life, from fishing in a kayak to carrying a baby in a papoose. (Graphic Arts Center/Alaska Northwest, $18.95 88p ages 9-12 ISBN 0-88240-545-4; $11.95 paper -546-2; June)

The Wells Fargo Book of the Gold Rush by Margaret Rau begins with James Marshall's 1848 discovery of gold flakes in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas and chronicles the mayhem that follows, with covered wagons headed west, townships springing up in their path and the start of Wells Fargo in 1852, which provided an "express forwarding agency" for valuable cargo. The book ends with the "Bust" of 1855 and the Forty-Niners' departure. Period photographs and drawings from the Wells Fargo Historical Archives illustrate the events. (S&S/Atheneum, $18 160p ages 8-12 ISBN 0-689-83019-X; May)

Marcia Sewall's James Towne: Struggle for Survival, told from the point of view of a settler, tracks the early days of Jamestown, Va. An economical text and Sewall's dramatic watercolor-and-ink illustrations chronicle the 1606 voyage from England, Captain John Smith's election as president of the colony and Pocahontas's famous intervention on Smith's behalf. (S&S/Atheneum, $16 40p ages 6-10 ISBN 0-689-81814-9; May)

New Formats for Old Favorites

The lyrics from The Sound of Music's My Favorite Things by Richard Rodgers gets a picture book treatment with paintings by Renée Graef, featuring a warm-hearted family playing with sleighbells and catching snowflakes. Oscar Hammerstein's music is also included. (HarperCollins, $15.95 32p all ages ISBN 0-06-028710-1; June)

A new series, "Storytime Classics," introduces four timeless stories retold by Janet Allison Brown to the picture-book crowd. Full-bleed and spot illustrations carry the stories, with text in large type In The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, both by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illus. by Graham Rust, the heroines' kind-heartedness and perserverence shines through. Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger embark on their adventures in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illus. by Joanne Moss, and in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, illus. by Dinah Dryhurst, readers meet the four March sisters. (Viking, $15.99 each 32p ages 5-8 ISBN 0-670-89911-9; -89913-5; -89914-3; -89912-7; June)