The Rocky's holiday books gift guide: Children's books

Rocky Mountain News

Published December 5, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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The Rocky's favorite children's books of 2008, selected by our children's critic, Jennifer Miller.

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The Apple-Pip Princess, by Jane Ray (CandlewickPress, $16.99, ages 4-8). When an aging king challenges his three daughters to demonstrate which one should succeed him, the youngest plants seeds gathered by her late mother and restores hope and happiness to the land. Refreshing and original, this uplifting folk tale shows the power of one person to make the world better.

Independent Dames, by Laurie Halse Anderson; illustrated by Matt Faulkner (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $16.99, age 6-10). Anderson rallies for the women and girls who aided in the Revolutionary War, as boisterous scenes erupt and talk balloons record shouts and pleas in this superb historical account so full of life you can almost hear the din and see movement.

Necks Out for Adventure!, by Timothy Basil Ering (Candle- wick Press, $16.99, ages 4-8). The rule of survival for Wiggleskins has always been: Stick your neck out to eat, pull it back in to hide. But when Edwin's village of clams is scooped away by a hideous "hornly scratcher," he must shuck his shell and save them from becoming stew in this quirky gem that will have you chuckling as a beach full of naked clams flee for the ocean.

Pete & Pickles, by Berkeley Breathed (Philomel Books, $17.99, ages 3 and up). Pete the pig is content living a predictable life until Pickles, a plucky elephant on the run from the circus, shows Pete that a few complications are just what he needs. Not since Hollie Hobbie's Toot and Puddles series has a buddy book left us feeling this tingly warm.

The Robot and the Bluebird, by David Lucas (Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.95, ages 4-8).When a repair crew fails to fix his broken heart, an aging robot is left to rust on a pile of unwanted parts until a bluebird flying south for the winter takes shelter in the hole where his heart used to be and makes it flutter and sing again. Readers' own hearts will soar after reading this story of true devotion.

The Way Back Home, by Oliver Jeffers (Penguin Young Readers Group, $16.99, ages 4 and up). The boy from Jeffers' Lost and Found discovers an airplane in his closet and soars into space, only to run out of fuel and pull off at the moon. There, he meets a stranded alien as lonesome as he is and helps concoct a super plan to get both of them back home.

Mary Had a Little Lamp, by Jack Lechner; illustrated by Bob Staake (Bloomsbury Children's Books, $15.95, ages 4-8). In this hilarious spoof on the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, Mary goes everywhere with her bendy, gooseneck lamp, until one day she completely forgets about him and finds another unlikely appliance to pull behind her. Smart and cleverly rhymed, this simple debut makes Lechner a name to watch.

Moonpowder, by John Rocco (Hyperion Books for Children, $15.99, ages 4 and up).Tinkerer Eli Treebuckle hasn't had a sweet dream since his father went to war, but when the moon asks Eli to fix his Moonpowder dream factory and recover the last trace of its magical powder from Mother Nature's closet, Eli discovers some things fix themselves.

Savvy, by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers, $16.99, ages 9-11). Mibs can't wait to turn 13, the age when all Beaumonts discover their supernatural power or "savvy," but when Poppa is badly hurt in a car crash two days before her birthday, it takes a bus ride with a bible salesman to set the day right again. Boulder's Law unveils her savvy for storytelling in this magical debut.

Lamplighter: Monster Blood Tatoo, Book Two, by D. M. Cornish (G. P. Putnam's Sons, $19.99, ages 9-12). Orphan Rossamund Bookchild uncovers corruption while lighting lamps in the Half-Continent's most treacherous highway system and is exiled to the most perilous outpost in this second installment of Cornish's remarkable fantasy trilogy. Cornish, like J.R.R. Tolkien, invents a world that's vivid and enthralling.

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