THE BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF 2000

All reviews are provided to Book Review by Publishers Weekly, where they first appeared. copyright, Publishers Weekly.

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AESOP’S FABLES

By Jerry Pinkney

North-South/SeaStar: 96 pp., $19.95

Serving up more than 60 fables, Jerry Pinkney uses detail, delicacy of line and a subtle palette to create an elegant foil for the simple parables. Aesop’s wisdom spills across the pages as freely as Pinkney’s glorious watercolors of the many creatures who people the tales, from fiddling grasshoppers and diligent ants to wily foxes and grateful lions. If there’s room on the shelf for only one picture-book version of Aesop, this beautifully designed and lush, oversized volume could be it. (All ages)

MAMMALABILIA

By Douglas Florian

Harcourt: 48 pp., $16

This collection of 21 short light verses about mammals brims with whimsy and fun. The artwork taps into childlike qualities without being simplistic; the animal portraits are clever yet appropriate. The gouache illustrations painted on primed brown paper bags, full of unusual textures and inventive designs, match the creativity of the word play. An irresistible homage to mammal memorabilia. (Ages 5 to 10)

WINGS

By Christopher Myers

Scholastic: 40 pp., $16.95

Once again demonstrating a masterful use of collage, Christopher Myers imaginatively refutes the myth of Icarus and champions the nature of the artist. A watchful girl, ostracized by her peers, narrates the story of her blossoming friendship with a new neighbor, Ikarus Jackson. Myers uses words and pictures to demonstrate that one person appreciating another’s true qualities makes life complete. (Ages 7 and up)

PICTURE THIS. . .

By Alison Jay

Dutton: 40 pp., $15.99

British author-artist Alison Jay provides a set of gorgeous illustrations in the American primitive style, each labeled with a quaint word such as “tortoise” or “umbrella.” However, the author has more than a spelling lesson in mind. Each page makes visual allusions to images on other pages, in what becomes a dramatic cycle of time and the seasons. Jay’s luxurious palette includes custard colors--avocado green, robin’s egg blue, vanilla white and peachy gold--and the paintings have the crackled surface of antique porcelain. Fans of such brainteasers as David Wiesner’s “Tuesday” and Joan Steiner’s “Look-Alikes” will be charmed by this pictorial puzzler. (Ages 2 to 5)

SO YOU WANT

TO BE PRESIDENT?

By Judith St. George

Illustrated by David Small

Philomel: 56 pp., $17.99

This lighthearted, often humorous roundup of anecdotes and trivia is cast as a handbook of helpful hints to aspiring presidential candidates. Judith St. George serves up diverse, occasionally tongue-in-cheek tidbits and spices the narrative with colorful quotes from her subjects, while David Small’s caricatures amplify the playful tone. The many clever, quirky asides may well send readers off on a presidential fact-finding mission--and spark many a discussion of additional anecdotes. A clever and engrossing approach to the men who have led America. (Ages 7 and up)

SITTING BULL AND HIS WORLD

By Albert Marrin

Dutton: 246 pp., $25

Through Albert Marrin’s gripping and complex portrait of Sitting Bull (1831-1890), the author demonstrates the Lakota Sioux leader’s importance in understanding American life today. Readers will come away with a palpable sense of the injustice of America’s Indian wars; Marrin’s picture of Sitting Bull and thorough look at the West offer powerful insights into this painful episode in our nation’s history. (Ages 11 and up)

BLING BLANG

By Woody Guthrie

Illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky

Candlewick: 24 pp., $12.99

As in “Howdi Do,” Vladimir Radunsky provides guileless visual accompaniment to the late Woody Guthrie’s whimsical lyrics. Blocky panels--composed of paper, cloth and photos of old walls with peeling paint--serve as bricks and wood. The characters themselves resemble hinged paper puppets creating a two-dimensional home. Loose paintings by real children (subtly altered by the artist) close this lighthearted number, and Radunsky deserves a round of applause for a charmingly loopy rendition of Guthrie’s song. (Ages 2 to 5)

BUZZ

By Janet S. Wong

Illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Harcourt: 32 pp., $15

This wide-eyed, cheerful tale offers a boy’s view of a busy weekday morning. An industrious bee acts as the guiding spirit and its buzz as the leitmotif: The boy translates its hum to the “BUZZZbuzzzBUZZZbuzz” of his parents’ snores, an alarm clock, a coffee grinder, a doorbell and his toy airplane’s ill-fated flight over the breakfast table. This joyful book will strike a resonant chord, especially for the many children with two working parents. (Ages 3 to 7)

LIBERTY

By Lynn Curlee

Simon & Schuster/Atheneum:

48 pp., $18

Art historian and artist Lynn Curlee gives readers an exquisitely detailed behind-the-scenes look at the making of an American landmark. Curlee’s flat acrylics, which typically position the viewer looking up at the statue from below, work to create a majestic presence for “Liberty Enlightening the World.” A reverent, absorbing homage to the world-renowned symbol of American freedom. (Ages 7 to 12)

SPINDLE’S END

By Robin McKinley

Putnam: 432 pp., $19.95

Newbery medalist Robin McKinley embroiders and expands upon the tale of “Sleeping Beauty.” Dense with magical detail and all-too-human feeling, this luscious, lengthy novel is almost impossible to rush through. By the end of this journey through an enchanted land--so thick with magic dust that good housekeeping remains a constant challenge--readers will feel that they know it as well as their own backyards. (Ages 12 and up)

CLICK, CLACK, MOO:

COWS THAT TYPE

By Doreen Cronin

Illustrated by Betsy Lewin

Simon & Schuster: 32 pp., $15

Plucky barnyard denizens unite to improve their working conditions in this hilarious debut picture book from Doreen Cronin. Betsy Lewin’s bold, loose-lined watercolors set a light and easygoing mood that matches Farmer Brown’s predicament, as first the cows, and then the rest of the farm animals, begin to bang out their demands on a typewriter. Kids everywhere will cheer for the clever critters that calmly and politely stand up for their rights. (Ages 3 to 7)

WHY NOT?

By Mary Wormell

Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 32 pp., $15

Mary Wormell introduces an engaging feisty kitten named Barnaby. To each of his mother’s warnings he replies, “WHY NOT?” and quickly learns exactly why. This is an altogether agreeable tale, one whose theme should coax a chuckle from parents in particular, and Wormell relates it with impeccable timing. Her graceful woodcuts present a vigorously appealing contrast; the bold black outlines of the bucolic images nicely counterpoint the soft natural palette of her watercolor wash. (Ages 2 to 6)

SIR WALTER RALEGH AND

THE QUEST FOR EL DORADO

By Marc Aronson

Clarion: 240 pp., $20

Marc Aronson examines the life of a contradictory and complex Elizabethan figure, both poet and soldier. He deftly intersperses a chronological account of the often paradoxical details of Sir Walter Ralegh’s life with the tumultuous changes taking place in early modern Europe. Aronson’s portrait of “the first modern man” is both provocative and tantalizing, revealing his subject as a person of canny wit and magnetism with all-too-human shortcomings. (Ages 11 and up)

MADE FOR EACH OTHER

By William Steig

HarperCollins/Cotler: 48 pp., $13.95

William Steig amasses and reinvents tried-and-true one-liners about love for couples young and old. Each brief proclamation appears in tandem with a sketch of a devoted duo, drawn in Steig’s quavery cursive line and kissed with delicate watercolor hues. This valentine is not just for children. (All ages)

THE SATURDAY KID

By Edward Sorel

with Cheryl Carlesimo

Illustrated by Edward Sorel

Simon & Schuster / McElderry:

32 pp., $18

Edward Sorel and Cheryl Carlesimo, a film-maker, warmly evoke bygone Manhattan landmarks and classic Hollywood cinema in this impressive homage to the 1930s picture show. Sorel captures old New York in galloping ribbons of ink and sepia-tinted watercolors. Young readers not yet acquainted with uniformed movie ushers or soda fountains get a shrewd introduction to cultural history, and older readers get a gorgeous trip down memory lane through Sorel’s affectionate eyes. (Ages 5 to 9)

DEEP IN THE JUNGLE

By Dan Yaccarino

Atheneum/Schwartz:

40 pp., $16

In perhaps his best-realized picture book yet, Dan Yaccarino takes a tongue-in-cheek look at an arrogant king of beasts. The lion bullies his subjects, including frowning brown monkeys and irritated blue elephants, until one day, a city slicker arrives, promising to make him a big star if he leaves the jungle. With short, sharp sentences and mild sarcasm, Yaccarino humorously twists the savage-versus-civilized formula. (Ages 4 to 8)

THE COLLECTOR OF MOMENTS

By Quint Bucholz

Translated from the German

by Peter F. Neumeyer

Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 48 pp., $18

Like its opening image of a seagull suspended at twilight and painted in sepia tones, this extraordinary volume honors the beauty inherent in a singular momentary experience. Max is a painter, the self-proclaimed “collector of moments”; the narrator, a boy, lives two floors down. When Max goes away for a stretch, both boy and readers are invited for a private showing of 13 breathtaking paintings. The boy pores over each picture, instructing readers by his power of example, and learns how much he has meant to Max. With the same exquisite crafting that Quint Bucholz exhibits in his paintings, he sculpts each section of prose. Whether young or old, readers will never view a work of art in the same way again. (All ages)

KATE AND THE BEANSTALK

By Mary Pope Osborne

Illustrated by Giselle Potter

Atheneum/Schwartz: 40 pp., $16

Mary Pope Osborne tweaks tradition with this feminist rendition of a classic fairy tale. Here, it’s Kate instead of Jack who trades her family’s cow for magic beans and later climbs the beanstalk to find a kingdom in the clouds. The tale stars a resourceful, confident heroine who regains all that the giant stole from her family. Giselle Potter’s airy gouache and watercolor illustrations sparkle with humor. (All ages)

ESPERANZA RISING

By Pam Munoz Ryan

Scholastic: 272 pp., $15.95

With a hint of magical realism, Pam Munoz Ryan’s robust novel set in 1930 captures a Mexican girl’s fall from riches and her immigration to California. The author weaves into Esperanza’s narrative the girl’s growing awareness of Mexico’s post-revolution tensions, the arrival of Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl victims in California and the struggles between the U.S. government and Mexican workers trying to organize for better living conditions. (Ages 9 to 14)

145TH STREET

Short Stories

By Walter Dean Myers

Delacorte: 176 pp., $15.95

In a kind of literary “Rear Window,” Walter Dean Myers uses 10 short stories to create snapshots of a pulsing, vibrant community through all of its ups and downs. Myers creates an overall effect of sitting on the front stoop swapping stories of the neighborhood. Most readers will find that they could settle in for hours and take it all in. (Ages 12 and up)

A BOY NAMED GIOTTO

By Paolo Guarnieri

Translated from the Italian

by Jonathan Galassi

Illustrated by Bimba Landmann

Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 32 pp., $17

The spare, mellifluous quality of first-time children’s book author Paolo Guarnieri’s prose is matched only by the fluidity of line and stark perspectives in Bimba Landmann’s paintings, which emulate the work of their subject. The author focuses on the makings of the artist from boyhood and concludes with Giotto’s pivotal pilgrimage to Assisi, where his frescoes are still revered today. Landmann’s gilded, fresco-like paintings shimmer in earth tones. She authentically depicts the stylized landscapes and the flat perspectives of Giotto’s time. For aspiring artists and art buffs alike. (Ages 5 and up)

OLIVIA

By Ian Falconer

Atheneum/Schwartz: 40 pp., $16

Come one, come all for this extraordinary debut. With a masterful use of black lines, a minimum of details, a judicious use of the color red and a few choice words, Falconer invents an unforgettable porcine heroine. Olivia’s boundless energy, deadpan humor, varied interests and keen fashion sense will win her many fans along the way. (Ages 3 to 7)

MR. WOLF’S PANCAKES

By Jan Fearnley

Little Tiger: 32 pp., $14.95

Though Mr. Wolf fantasizes about flapjacks, he hasn’t the first idea how to cook them, and when he seeks assistance from his neighbors, they nastily refuse. When they demand a share of the finished product, Mr. Wolf invites them into the kitchen--and then gobbles them up, with pancakes on the side. Chipper watercolors depict a sunny storybook town where denizens shop at Old Mother Hubbard’s General Store and Simple Simon’s Pie & Cake Emporium. A gleeful twist on a nursery staple. (Ages 5 to 7)

THE HONEST-TO-GOODNESS TRUTH

By Patricia C. McKissack

Illustrated by Giselle Potter

Atheneum/Schwartz: 40 pp., $16

When Libby Louise tells a fib, her own shame far outweighs her punishment and she vows, “From now on, only the truth.” But enforcement of her rule soon lands her in deep water. Patricia C. McKissack examines a common childhood problem--discerning when the truth helps and when it hurts--with homespun language and accessible situations. Giselle Potter’s folk-art style provides a fitting complement to the author’s cozy community. (Ages 4 to 8)

THE GIGGLER TREATMENT

By Roddy Doyle

Illustrated by Brian Ajhar

Scholastic / Levine: 112 pp., $14.95

In his first story for children, Roddy Doyle pens a robustly silly romp. At the outset of the tale, Mister Mack is about to step in “dog poo.” Displaying a sadistic sense of timing, Doyle draws out the suspense to outrageous lengths, interrupting his narrative with chapter after chapter of digressions that keep readers squirming in their seats until . . . does he step in it or doesn’t he? A bracingly rude dose of fun. (Ages 9 to 12)

STEAMBOAT!

The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers

By Judith Heide Gilliland

Illustrated by Holly Meade

DK Ink/Kroupa: 32 pp., $16.95

Judith Heide Gilliland’s story flows as swiftly and assuredly as the Mississippi River on which it is set, recounting Blanche Douglas’ childhood dream--and its realization--to be the first woman steamboat captain. Gilliland and illustrator Holly Meade convincingly expose the mysteries of the Mississippi and Blanche’s triumphant test run on a moonless night. An inspirational historical portrait. (Ages 6 to 9)

From “Aesop’s Fables”