What a Concept

Jim Arnosky's Mouse Shapes: A Very First Book showcases a rascally rodent wreaking geometric havoc in a tiny trim size (roughly 5¾"×4½"). Wordless opening pages show the mouse bending a big twig into a circle. The word "Circle" appears when he successfully makes the shape. In the next series of drawings, the mouse hops on top to squish the circle into an oval; then Arnosky stretches readers' brains when the fellow forms a "parallelogram," a "trapezoid" and a "pentagon." Armed with a paintbrush, the hero mixes highly recognizable hues in Mouse Colors: A Very First Book. (Clarion, $5.95 each 48p ages 6mos.-2yrs. ISBN 0-618-01522-1; -01521-3; Sept.)

Color concepts are also explored in Yellow, Blue, and Bunny, Too! by Emma Dodd. When a magic rabbit waves his wand, a white mouse turns red, a cat's orange stripes transform into yellow polka dots, and Woof's white dog bone turns a lovely shade of green. The animals then turn the tables on Bunny. Big, Small, Little Red Ball teaches simple concepts as Woof looks for his lost ball; pull tabs subtly alter each scene. (Dutton, $11.99 each 18p ages 2-6 ISBN 0-525-46745-9; -46744-0; Oct.)

Alan Baker's newest Little Rabbit offering is perfect for preschoolers. In Little Rabbits' First Farm Book, full-color spreads (with a loose story line) nestle next to informative sidebars. For instance, a spread called "Cattle Moo-ing" shows Little Rabbit feeding the animals hay. The sidebar asks, "Did You Know?" then answers, "Cows eat grass to make milk. Hay is dried grass." Below, a portrait of the animal family depicts bull, cow and calf. The back pages suggest games and practical extensions for teaching concepts. (Kingfisher, $11.95 32p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-7534-5352-5; Sept.)Little Rabbits' First Number Book and Little Rabbits' First Word Book are now in paperback. ($5.95 each 32p ages 3-up -5356-8; -5355-X; Sept.)

Food for Thought

Kathleen Krull's matter-of-fact text anchors each spread of Supermarket, while information implanted in Melanie Hope Greenberg's compositions adds substance. For example, an opening spread says, "It all begins on farms," while a U.S. map painted on the side of the "Happy Farms" barn says, "Certain states are famous for certain foods: Iowa for popcorn, Vermont for maple syrup"; a billboard planted in the field notes the contributions of labor organizer César Chavez. (Holiday, $16.95 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-8234-1546-5; Sept.)

Marc Harshman and Cheryl Ryan harvest a garden's fall bounty in Red Are the Apples. Like the title, each quatrain begins with a color: "Yellow's the corn/ on stalks growing high,/ shading the pumpkins/ and reaching the sky." Wade Zahares's piquant pastels, with colors that vibrate against one another and offbeat perspectives, are a feast for the eyes. (Harcourt/Gulliver, $16 32p ages 3-7 ISBN 0-15-201917-0; Sept.)

It's a Potty!

Nellie Elephant, Tall Thin Giraffe and a host of other animals must find a potty that fits in Guido Van Genechtin's Potty Time (" 'Here's a potty for my round pink bottom,' said Percy Pig"). So must Joe, the boy who opens the book announcing, "It's potty time!" Bold brushstrokes in the paint-on-newspaper collage artwork complement the simple, predictable text. (S&S, $12.95 32p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-689-84698-3; Sept.)

"Ruby's got a potty./ She rides it round the floor./ The trouble is, she doesn't know/ Just what a potty's for." So begins Paul and Emma Rogers's sweet description of the titular mouse in Ruby's Potty, who is learning the right way to use the strange device. Finally, Ruby gets it right. Soft, nursery-hued pastels portray the loving field mouse family. (Dutton, $12.99 24p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-525-46816-1; Sept.)

Get Crafty

Providing pop-up, pull-the-tab fun for the whole family, knitters or not, Ruth Hearson's Knitted by Grandma features a heroine who "just knits, and knits, and knits." On Monday, it's mittens. On Wednesday, it's "wooly wigs for the Women's Institute." Cutout collage pieces of real knitted hats and gloves lend a warm and fuzzy feeling to the colorful illustrations; a gift box in the back holds a paper hat and instructions for knitting your own. (Dial, $12.99 16p ages 3-up ISBN 0-8037-2689-9; Sept.)

Creative characters lead readers on an artistic adventure in Oodles to Do with Loo-Loo and Boo by Denis Roche. Full-color spreads reminiscent of comic strips, in a spiral binding, feature Boo and Loo making paper hats, "stinky clay" and sculptures out of household recyclables, and offer clear instructions. (Houghton, $9.95 paper 64p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-618-15423-X; Sept.)

The star and namesake of the Discovery Channel's Lynette Jennings Design show offers girls 28 decorating ideas in Have Fun with Your Room. The chapters—"Nature Girl," "Funky Chick," "Flower Power" and "Teddy Bears"—feature four different rooms to replicate. An opening quiz helps to determine the most suitable style. The coolest craft? A "Scrunchy Post" made of a soda bottle and painted PVC pipe for holding hair accessories. (S&S/Aladdin, $12 paper 64p ages 10-14 ISBN 0-689-82585-4; Oct.)

Crafts from Your Favorite Children's Songs by Kathy Ross, illus. by Vicky Enright, offers ideas on how to make a dozen familiar songs even more interactive. With simple instructions and a few household items, kids can construct "Old MacDonald's Barn" as they sing "E-I-E-I-O" or dangle the eensy-weensy "Washed-Out Spider" from a water spout (made from a paper towel tube). (Millbrook, $8.95 paper 48p ages 4-up ISBN 0-7613-1438-5; Sept.)

Scientifically Speaking

A trio of titles kicks off David Glover's Experiments in Science series, which features one experiment per spread, with crisp photographs and plenty of white space. In How Does It Work?, for instance, school-age scientists experiment with "Electricity," "Forces and Movement," "Light and Color" and "Sound and Music." A "Parents' Notes" section at the beginning of each chapter helps adults approach the scientific principles and a quiz at the end tests children's knowledge. The other two titles are How Do Things Grow? and What Is It Made Of?(DK, $24.95 128p ages 5-up ISBN 0-7894-7849-8; -7848-X; -7850-1; Sept.)

Two titles by Jay Young point the way to higher learning. On each spread of The Magic Fact Machine: Science and The Magic Fact Machine: Animals, readers press a pointing robot finger into a hole on the left, then turn it so that it points at a question (e.g., "What is unusual about the metal mercury?"). When they place it in the hole on the next page, the finger magically spins toward the correct answer ("It is liquid at room temperature"). Full-color photographs and brief blocks of text explain the overriding issues. (Sterling, $14.95 each 32p ages 7-12 ISBN 0-8069-5601-1; -5589-9; Sept.)

Natural Wonders

Jane Yolen turns her eye towards the Everglades in Welcome to the River of Grass, the fourth installment of her environmentally themed collaboration with illustrator Laura Regan. From the start readers are invited into a world of rare beauty ("Welcome to the river of grass,/ running green/ from side to side,/ a river that is inches deep/ and miles wide"). Regan's marshy green and gold-tinged gouache evokes the wetlands' hazy days. (Putnam, $15.99 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-399-23221-4; Oct.)

Presented like a travelogue, the opening pages of Tim Knight's oversize book, Journey into the Rainforest, with photos by Juan Pablo Moreiras and Tim Knight, teaches travelers what to wear and what to expect. A "Map of the Journey" follows, and photographs capture a lush landscape filled with mangrove swamps, waterfalls, wild orchids and bananas; sidebars and close-up pictures and captions detail the abundant life above and below the canopy. (Oxford, $18.95 48p ages 7-up ISBN 0-19-521751-9; Sept.)

World class wildlife photographers document the bond that knows no boundaries in Tender Moments in the Wild: Animals and their Babies, ed. by Stephanie Maze. A border of tiny stamps outlines the spread of each featured creature with a simple line of text (e.g.,"A seal cuddles with her baby on the beach"; "a crocodile carries her babies carefully in her powerful jaws"). (Moonstone, $15 32p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-9707768-0-2; Sept.)

Will You Sting Me? Will You Bite? The Truth About Some Scary-Looking Insects by Sara Swan Miller, illus. by Rick Chrustowski, reveals the real deal about some of nature's creepiest creatures in poetry. Information about the blood-sucking mosquito, for example, is followed by "The Whiner": "You'll hear her whining day or night/ (I think she needs a tissue!)/ The only time she seems to smile/ Is right before she sticks you." Realistic illustrations let budding entymologists examine the insects up close. (Stemmer House, $18.95 48p ages 5-10 ISBN 0-88045-144-0; $9.95 paper -145-9; Oct.)

Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies, illus. by Sarah Fox-Davies, follows the pipstrelle bats' nocturnal wanderings. Dusky watercolor-and-pencil illustrations add enigmatic beauty; bat facts appear in a different typeface and illuminate the narrative. Pencil sketches on the endpapers label different kinds of bats with their common and scientific names. (Candlewick, $15.99 32p ages 5-8 ISBN 0-7636-1202-2; Sept.)

In a 100-year-old plot, growing beside a tiny house on a hidden city street, stories take root—all centered around One Small Garden by Barbara Nichols, illus. by Barry Moser. The delicate watercolors provide fertile ground for the urban legends, gardening lore and tender tales about humanity's relationship with nature. (Tundra, $17.95 56p ages 8-11 ISBN 0-88776-475-4; Oct.)

In A Pacific Alphabet by Margriet Ruurs, illus. by Dianna Bonder, each page features a painting and a letter, which dominates the corresponding rhyme; back pages list all 26 letters and the items pictured in the full-bleed wry paintings that begin with the featured letter. (Whitecap Books, $16.95 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 1-55285-264-4; Nov.)

Curriculum Companions Verla Kay employs the format she used to such strong effect in Gold Fever and Covered Wagons, Bumpy Trails to describe the journey to the New World in Tattered Sails. Dan Andreason's dimly lit illustrations depict the land they're leaving and the ship's hold, as well as the home awaiting them: "One room cabin,/ Rush beds, soft./ Greased cloth windows,/ Ladder, loft." (Putnam, $15.99 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-399-23345-8; Sept.)

In Hiawatha and Megissogwon—an excerpt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha (1853)—illustrator Jeffrey Thompson's combination of scratchboard and computer-generated illustrations appeals to a modern sensibility while preserving the historical flavor. Joseph Bruchac puts Longfellow's poem in the context of its time and clarifies some misleading details in the poem. (National Geographic, $16.95 32p ages 6-up ISBN 0-7922-6676-5; Oct.)

Vasco Da Gama, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong all stake a claim in Explorers: Pioneers Who Broke New Boundaries by Richard Platt. This plus seven other additions to DK's Secret Worlds series feature information-packed pages, colorful graphics and tabbed page corners that list suggested Web sites. A reference section in the back contains a glossary, timeline, notable facts and other interesting destinations on the Web. The other titles available in simultaneous harcover/softcover editions: Apes; Body; Bugs; Dinosaurs; Mummies; Native Americans; and Tornadoes. (DK, $14.95 96p ages 8-up ISBN 0-7894-7973-7; $7.95 paper -7974-5; Sept.)