MAKING THE LIST | PAGE 1, 2
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Families who celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday might like to give their daughters "Tapestries: Stories of Women in the Bible" and "Joan of Arc." Illustrated with classical-flavored paintings meant to look woven, "Tapestries" tells the stories of 13 Old Testament and 10 New Testament heroines in a few brief paragraphs each. Probably without meaning to, it underscores how odd these stories are: Deborah goes to battle having prophesied that she'll lose (which she does); Rahab is rewarded for betraying her people to the Israelites. Ruth Sanderson, the author and illustrator, left out Judith, though Jael is here, driving a nail through a sleeping general's head; perhaps Sanderson thought one grisly, righteous murderess was enough. The New Testament women are mostly blander: They do things like receive letters from the apostle Paul.

In the hands of illustrator Angela Barrett, known for her dreamy, romantically realistic versions of fairy tales, Joan of Arc becomes a young and feminine warrior. She rides through flowering fields, weeps for her fallen enemies, cries when she's wounded. Barrett fills the book with flames -- orange flowers, torches, hearths -- but leaves Joan's final burning implicit. This is a dainty, idealized hagiography, which nevertheless makes Joan seem like a real girl.

Several other juvenile-lit greats have new work out this year as well. Faith Ringgold, author of "Tar Beach," has written and illustrated "The Invisible Princess," a powerful legend about slave days. When Mama and Papa Love, a slave couple, beg the Great Lady of Peace to hide their baby daughter to protect her freedom, the Lady enlists the Prince of Night to make the little princess invisible. This moving, mythic story has the bitterness of slavery at its core, as well as the redemptive power of the love of justice. The pictures are gorgeous.

A more playful book, "Ouch!" based on a Grimm tale, pairs Natalie Babbitt's flawless ear with Fred Marcellino's stately goofery. It's one of those stories with a clever, lucky hero whom the king can't get rid of -- thrown in the river as a baby, he washes up in the milldam, wins the princess's hand and tricks the devil himself. Babbitt pulls off lines like, "Oh, what a scene of gloom and ruin Hell turned out to be! It was easy to see why no one was anxious to go there," which Marcellino illustrates with classical ruins and towering, Romantic clouds.

For older readers (perhaps fourth to seventh graders), Philip Pullman's 1982 novel "Count Karlstein," long unavailable but reissued this year, presents a similar atmosphere of high Romantic gloom, danger and goofy brilliance. Wicked Count Karlstein has made a pact with Zamiel, the Demon Huntsman, whom he hopes to appease by feeding him Charlotte and Lucy, the Count's little English nieces. Naturally, Charlotte and Lucy have their own view of the plan. Pullman tells the story through various narrators -- the police reports of bumbling Sergeant Snitch are screamingly funny, as are the passages narrated by Charlotte, who is addicted to Gothic novels and uses Capital Letters with Ecstatic Abandon. Pullman's witty, literate novels (he has written several series) are an excellent choice for children who like adventure stories -- just make sure the flashlight batteries have plenty of juice, since the kids are sure to stay up reading under the covers long past your bedtime.

Anthony Browne, an extraordinary British surrealist, has a new picture book out this year as well. Like "Count Karlstein," "Voices in the Park" tells a story through several narrators, each with his or her own typeface. The story itself is simple: Two families -- a mother and son and a father and daughter -- meet up when they take their dogs for a walk in the park, and the dogs and children play together. The narratives, however, could hardly be more different. The well-to-do, uptight mother so disapproves of her son's new acquaintance that the very trees in the background scream and burst into flame. The depressed, unemployed father sees gloomy images everywhere (rats in the gutter, a weeping Mona Lisa propped up against a wall). The timid little boy (well, ape -- the children are chimps, the adults gorillas) sees a flat, wintry landscape, but he cheers up when he meets the girl, who makes bare trees burst into bloom. Browne's illustrations bear a second, third, seventh look -- tiny, impossible touches such as a tree with a whale's tail, a hat-shaped cloud or a tree trunk with elephant toes appear only after several readings. Were they there all along? It's impossible to say.

Finally, for the child who wants to be a fire engine when he grows up, the oversized "Monster Machines" should fit the bill. The mass excavator folds out to reveal a jumbo jet; the cargo plane might tempt Santa himself to trade in his reindeer. Best of all, this book doesn't come with a musical chip -- all sound effects are to be supplied by the young reader.
SALON | Dec. 8, 1998

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B O O K _ I N F O R M A T I O N:

"ARTHUR DECKS THE HALL" | BY MARC BROWN | RANDOM HOUSE, 10 PAGES

"DREIDEL, DREIDEL, DREIDEL" | ILLUSTRATED BY STEPHEN CARPENTER | HARPERFESTIVAL, 10 PAGES

"LAURA'S ALBUM: A REMEMBRANCE SCRAPBOOK OF LAURA INGALLS WILDER" | COMPILED BY WILLIAM ANDERSON | HARPERCOLLINS, 80 PAGES

"TAPESTRIES: STORIES OF WOMEN IN THE BIBLE" | BY RUTH SANDERSON | LITTLE, BROWN, 32 PAGES

"JOAN OF ARC" | BY JOSEPHINE POOLE; ILLUSTRATED BY ANGELA BARRETT | KNOPF, 32 PAGES

"THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS" | BY FAITH RINGGOLD | CROWN, 30 PAGES

"OUCH! A TALE FROM GRIMM" | RETOLD BY NATALIE BABBITT; ILLUSTRATED BY FRED MARCELLINO | HARPERCOLLINS, 32 PAGES

"COUNT KARLSTEIN" | BY PHILIP PULLMAN | KNOPF, 243 PAGES

"VOICES IN THE PARK" | BY ANTHONY BROWNE | DK INK, 30 PAGES

"MONSTER MACHINES: THE BIGGEST, HEAVIEST, CHUNKIEST MACHINES ON THE MOVE" | BY CAROLINE BINGHAM | DK PUBLISHING, 32 PAGES