There's no particular reason why this fall should be so wealthy in wonderful picture books for children, so we won't reason why at all. We'll just celebrate: it might make shopping for the holidays just a little easier.
These volumes run the gamut of usual kid book subjects: retellings of myths, legends, folk and fairy tales; new editions of classic children's books; alphabet and counting books; and original stories ranging from the ambitious to the zany.Children acquainted with mythology will recognize in "Ishtar and Tammuz" (Kingfisher, $15.95) a relative of the Persephone and Demeter myth in which a goddess has to descend to the underworld to rescue her child and ensure the cycle of the seasons.
Christopher Moore retells in forceful and poetic prose the tale of the beautiful and dreaded Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who grows jealous of the popularity of her son (or lover in some renditions) Tammuz, whose murder she commands; there's a soap opera twist. His death brings infertility and sadness to the world, and Ishtar must humble herself and travel to the underworld kingdom of her sister, the half-woman, half-lioness Allatu, to restore Tammuz to life. Christina Balit's striking illustrations are colorful, stately and startling.
One of childhood's best-loved fairy tales is "Toads and Diamonds," retold here (Greenwillow, $16) by Charlotte Huck and illustrated with charm and verve by veteran artist Anita Lobel. It's a typical situation of a kind younger sister who triumphs over a mean older sister and mother brought to grief by their selfishness. Renee generously helps an old woman at a well, and her reward is that diamonds and flowers drop from her lips when she speaks. Greedy Mom sends the other sister to the well, but Francine is rude and ungrateful to every creature she meets, so her punishment is that toads and snakes fall from her mouth when she utters a word. Then a handsome prince comes along, etc., finds Renee, etc., they live happily, etc. You know the drill. But it's fun.
In "The Bunyans" (Blue Sky/Scholastic, $15.95), Audrey Wood extends the familiar tales of the giant lumberjack and his great blue ox Babe into the 20th century. Paul marries a female giant of equal strength and exuberance, and they have two children, Little Jean and Teeny. Basically, the story follows the Bunyans as they travel around the country creating such geographical features as Big Sur ("What's the big idea, sir?"), the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado and Bryce Canyon in Utah. Teeny bathes in Niagra Falls to wash the bears out of her hair, and Ma Bunyan washes dishes in Old Faithful. Then Ma and Pa retire and the kids go to Europe. Stay tuned for further adventures. David Shannon's illustrations are imaginative and witty.
The splendid Everyman's Library Children's Classics this season adds "Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories" (Alfred A. Knopf, $13.95) by Charles Perrault, the 17th-century French civil servant who popularized fairy tales in literary form. This little edition, in its distinctive series binding of black and gold decorations, features black and white drawings and full-color plates by the inimitable W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944). The tales are "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," "Puss in Boots," "Little Tom Thumb," "The Fairies," "Ricky of the Tuft," "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Blue Beard."
The prolific Bruce Coville, who did a fine job last year with his retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest," returns with the Bard's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Dial Books, $16.99). Coville treats the plot and language of the play with care, echoing lines and speeches and occasionally using the exact words, and trimming to fit the story within the book's physical limitations. In doing so, he manages to capture the play's giddy sense of crossed love and the enchantment of its fairyland creatures. Dennis Nolan's watercolor illustrations add to the magic and humor.
A fascinating new edition of "The Wizard of Oz" (A Michael Neugebauer Book/North-South Books, $19.95) is illustrated with contemporary eeriness by Viennese artist Lisbeth Zwerger. Spare, droll and psychologically adroit, her work lends the well-beloved tale a jolt of weird elegance. Full-page illustrations and numerous inserts and margin drawings enhance the book with unexpected richness.
Not for the tiniest tots, perhaps, is "Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination" (Creative Editions/Harcourt Brace & Co., $19.95), given sumptuous large-format treatment and scary illustrations by Gary Kelley. The tales, three of Poe's best, are "A Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Kelley's full-page paintings are dark, evocative and terrifying.
On to more light-hearted things.
Just a few verses from "My Little Sister Ate One Hare" (Crown Publishers, $17) will prove why it's a counting book certain to appeal to listeners and readers alike:
My little sister ate 1 hare.
We thought she'd throw up then and there.
But she didn't.
My little sister ate 2 snakes.
She ate 2 snakes, for heaven sakes!
She ate 2 snakes. She ate 1 hare.
We thought she'd throw up then and there.
But she didn't.
If you don't catch the drift after these stanzas, you're not paying attention. By the time Bill Grossman's poem gets to eight and nine, well, things really start to develop. And when Little Sister eats 10 peas, watch out. The illustrations by Kevin Hawkes are downright hilarious.
Tomie dePaola has written and illustrated Strega Nona adventures since 1976. Now he returns with "Strega Nona: Her Story" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $15.95). It's a sweet little biography that reveals the facts of her life in Calabria, how she apprenticed herself to the old "strega" - herb doctor / midwife / good witch - Grandma Concetta and learned all her secrets except the secret to the pasta pot. When Grandma Concetta retires and turns things over to Strega Nona, the new strega discovers that that secret is the most important device in her repertoire.
Jon Agee's "Dmitri the Astronaut" (Michael di Capua Books / HarperCollins, $14.95) is just plain fun. Dmitri returns from 2-1/2 years on the moon to discover that nobody remembers him or cares about the rocks he collected. Disappointed, he tosses his bag of rocks into a trash barrel without realizing that something - someone - else is in there, a creature who indeed does remember him and will take up crayon in, uh, beak to prove it so. A sweet and delightful story.
Remember those shortcuts you used to take to school but you had to leave early because they took so long? That's the premise of "The Secret Shortcut" (Scholastic Press, $14.95), written and illustrated by Mark Teague. Wendell and Floyd have so much trouble getting to school on time they decide to leave very early one morning and take a shortcut Wendell says he knows. Of course, the shortcut turns into a wilderness and a jungle and a swamp and a mountainside. Will they make it to school at all? Teague's illustrations are contemporary and dynamic.
Eric Beddows goes all out in his detailed and painterly illustrations for "The Rooster's Gift", written by Pam Conrad (A Laura GeringerBook / HarperCollins, $15.95). Some of them resemble Grant Wood's farmscapes, but when Beddows focuses on the facial expressions of a flock of hens and its rooster, he turns slyly witty. Conrad's tale of a rooster who is persuaded the sun rises because he crows for it - not the other way around - and a hen who teaches him a bit of humility is completely up to the richness of the illustrations.
Two books about home and what the concept means relate touching stories about children who learn, gently and unobtrusively, that the heart can sometimes orient us better than the head can - and that sometimes we must sacrifice home for happiness.
Few books could be more colorful than "Going Home" (HarperCollins, $14.95),in which a Mexican family living in California drives four days south to spend Christmas in their native village. Eve Bunting's text and David Diaz's folk art-like pictures superimposed on festive photographs work beautifully together to create a sense of the emotional ties the family's mother and father feel for La Perla, though the children, more American than their parents, aren't so certain. It's when they realize what their parents gave up to find opportunity in California that the idea of what home is hits home with them. A lovely story.
In "How Many Miles to Jacksonville" (Putnam, $15.95), Tony Johnston sweetly evokes the life of a small Texas railway town and the occupations undertaken by its children to pass the slow, innumerable, dusty hours. In language that faintly mimics a country drawl, he describes the water tower, the lizards and tumbleweeds, the flattened pennies on the tracks, the restaurant where travelers ate every night, the energy and speed of the locomotives. Though the boys in the story wonder how far it is to Jacksonville, it is clear the author, at least, has plenty of affection for those old, small-town days. The watercolor illustrations by Bart Forbes are perfectly appropriate.
Finally, look at "Maples in the Mist: Children's Poems from the Tang Dynasty" (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books / William Morrow & Co., $15), translated by Minfong Ho and illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng. The book's 15 short poems, written between 618 and 907 A.D., gently point to the pleasures found in life's ordinary events and objects: picking lilies on a pond, watching the full moon, meeting an old man on the road, waking in the morning, hearing news from home. The translator provides notes on the author's lives and briefly discusses the nature of Chinese poetry. The Tseng's watercolor pictures conjure the style and imagery of traditional Chinese art.