And Then What Happened?

Fall novels offer continuing adventures. Son of the Mob, according to PW, is "The Sopranos (minus the vulgarity and violence) meets Leave It to Beaver, a brassy, comical caper." Now, in Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle by Gordon Korman, Vince Luca is ready to start college in Los Angeles. After meeting a cast of new friends, Vince's misadventures include killing a frat's prized rubber tree plant, giving in to the advances of his roommate's girlfriend and continually distancing himself from his mobster family network. (Hyperion, $15.99 272p ages 12-up ISBN 0-7868-0918-3; Sept.)

"Jinks turns medieval history into fodder for both high comedy and allegory," said PW in a starred review of her Pagan's Crusade, the first of a planned quartet of books. Pagan's Vows by Catherine Jinks, the third installment, finds Lord Roland and Pagan renouncing their violent ways as they aspire to become monks at the Abbey of Saint Martin. Pagan's familiar, wry observations make light of his and Roland's struggles, adjusting to their monastic life. Pagan also finds out who is embezzling money from the abbey. (Candlewick, $15.99 336p ages 12-up ISBN 0-7636-2021-1; Sept.)

In Himalaya by Jonathan Neale, a follow-up to Lost at Sea, which PW called "a white-knuckle read," Orrie, Jack and their younger brother Andy travel to Nepal on a mountain climbing trip. Jack is determined to climb to impress the kids back home, while Orrie fumes at being left at Base Camp with Andy and her father's new girlfriend. Disaster strikes when Orrie decides to pursue her dad and Jack and a storm hits. (Houghton, $16 160p ages 10-14 ISBN 0-618-41200-X; Sept.)

In the sequel to 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents, 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher by Lee Wardlaw, Sneeze struggles with "inventor's block" and begins to misbehave at school to sabotage his parents' attempts to get him into high school early. The book ends with the titular list. (Dial, $16.99 240p ages 10-up ISBN 0-8037-2658-9; Aug.)

The Last of the Roundup Boys by Debra Seely is the sequel to Grasslands, which PW said "convincingly illustrates the gaps between the romance of the West and the realities of daily life on a struggling Kansas farm in the early 1880s." The narrative alternates between Tom, now 17, who gets a second chance at fulfilling his dreams of cowboy life; and Evie Parsons, the daughter of his employer, who nurses a crush on Tom. (Holiday, $16.95 230p ages 11-up ISBN 0-8234-1814-6; July)

Makeovers with Mass Appeal

New editions spruce up popular titles and bestselling series. Christopher Paolini's Eragon is now available in a deluxe edition, which includes an extensive language/pronunciation guide, a foldout map of Alagaësia in blue ink (penned by Paolini) and new artwork by the author. (Knopf, $18.95 544p ages 12-up ISBN 0-375-82668-8; Aug.)

The royal Mia's legion fans can get two for the price of one with The Princess Diaries, Volumes I & II: Mia Tells It Like It Is by Meg Cabot, which includes the first pair of titles in the series, The Princess Diaries and Princess in the Spotlight. PW called the first book "a classic makeover tale souped up on imperial steroids." (HarperCollins/Avon, $13.99 paper 416p ages 12-up ISBN 0-06-057588-3; Aug.)

Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison recollects the initial two titles in that series, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God. Of the series, PW wrote "Rennison exquisitely captures the fine art of the adolescent ability to turn chaos into stand-up comedy." (HarperCollins/Avon, $13.99 512p ages 12-up ISBN 0-06-057590-5; Aug.)

High Concepts

New picture books promote and chicly present educational concepts. In a kind of companion to his The New Alphabet of Animals (PW described the art as "strikingly iconic"), Christopher Wormell uses his bold, lino-cut prints to count animal characteristics in Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles: An Animal Counting Book. From "one rhinoceros horn" to the "20 barnacle shells" on a humpback whale, he hits many of children's favorite inhabitants of land and sea. Brief paragraphs on each creature and an elegantly designed cloth cover complete this handsome presentation. (Running Press, $18.95 64p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-7624-2100-2; Aug.)

The terrible—and terrific—twos get their due in Growing Up Stories: Sweet Jasmine, Nice Jackson: What It's Like to Be 2—And to Be Twins! by Robie Harris, illus. by Michael Emberley, with a double entendre that covers both the age and the sibling duo. The twin stars chatter with each other, throw tantrums, hug, play and learn to use the toilet. Like other books in the series, the story runs alongside explanations of the characters' actions, targeted at older siblings. (S&S/McElderry, $16.95 40p ages 3-7 ISBN 0-689-83259-1; Aug.)

Also adding to their series for the very young, Joanna Cole once again teams up with Maxie Chambliss for Sharing Is Fun (a companion to When Mommy and Daddy Go to Work; How I Was Adopted). Andrew's friends Emily and Joshua visit him for a play date. After his mother asks him if he has any toys "too special" to share, Andrew puts away his teddy and other favorites; and he learns to share the rest with his guests ("Remember, all the other toys are for everyone to play with," says Mommy). (HarperCollins, $6.99 32p ages 1-4 ISBN 0-06-050499-4; Aug.)

With the election nearing, the timely D Is for Democracy: A Citizen's Alphabet by Elissa Grodin (N Is for Nutmeg), illus. by Victor Juhasz, spells out American history letter by letter. Pairing short rhymes with detailed sidebars, pages include "F is for the Founding Fathers" ("who went to a convention./ The U.S. Constitution/ was their wonderful invention") with brief bios on Jefferson, Franklin and others. (Sleeping Bear/ Thomson Gale [800-487-2323], $16.95 40p ages 4-12 ISBN 1-58536-234-4; Aug.)

O Isfor Oystercatcher: A Book of Seaside ABCs by newcomer Barbara Patrizzi focuses on coastal ecosystems. On each spread, simple compositions in a square block print present the creatures in their natural settings (dolphins leap above the water's surface; an egret holds a fish at the shoreline), opposite text superimposed over a large pastel capital letter. While lack of entries for X and Y may not leave readers happy as a quahog ("a clam by any other name"), the engaging writing helps. (Down the Shore [Koen, dist.], $16.95 56p ages 4-up ISBN 1-59322-008-1; Aug.)

Poetic verse accompanies photos of inanimate objects that take on anthropomorphic features in Find a Face by François and Jean Robert, with Jean Gittings. Full-bleed photos show the close-up "faces" of objects such as the markings on the heel of a shoe, an upside-down chair and the profiles of triangular cheese graters. Readers are invited to guess the object's identity (answers, printed upside-down, appear below each object) and to seek faces in their daily lives: "Need to find a friendly face?/ Look around, we're everyplace!" (Chronicle, $15.95 32p ages 4-8 ISBN 0-8118-4338-6; Aug.)

Shape recognition and fine art once again intersect in Lucy Micklethwait's I Spy Shapes in Art. Of her earlier title, I Spy: An Alphabet in Art, PW wrote in a starred review, "Micklethwait has fashioned a remarkably rich investigation into the pleasures of looking at paintings." Here she demonstrates different shapes by highlighting 14 pieces of art from the likes of Matisse, O'Keeffe and Warhol (a Campbell's soup can illustrates "a cylinder"). While the "answer" is never difficult, the works often feature numerous shapes, leaving room for further exploration. (HarperCollins/Greenwillow, $19.99 40p ages 3-up ISBN 0-06-073193-1; Aug.)