10 children’s tomes for the holidays

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Save the penguins and more
Ever since the release of “The March of the Penguins” and now “Happy Feet,” it seems Americans can’t get enough of the cuddly creatures from the South Pole. But how would it feel if a penguin arrived in the mail each day for a year with no return address? Well, author Jean-Luc Fromental does just that by concocting a tale around the arrival of our fine, feathered friends on the doorstep of one unsuspecting family in “365 Penguins,” illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet, (Abrams Young Readers, $17.95.)

Along the way, there are basic lessons to be learned, mostly about counting. Did you know if you stack penguins in four piles of 15, you have a total of 60 penguins? But the point to be driven home (excuse the pun) is the consequences of the planet warming up and the ice caps melting.

Wild horses come to life in Leo Yerxa’s “Ancient Thunder” (Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, $18.95) a series of drawings by Yerxa that feature wild horses against a background that resembles the traditional cloth worn by the plains’ people. Yerxa, an artist of Ojibway ancestry and born on the Little Eagle Reserve in Ontario, uses few words to move the story forward. And if Yerxa intent was to celebrate these majestic animals, he succeeds wildly.

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Other new and noteworthy children’s books include:

“Across the Alley” by Richard Michelson, Illustrated by E.B. Lewis (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $16.99)
“Alphabet Explosion!: Search and Count from Alien to Zebra” by John Nickle (Schwartz & Wade Books, $16.95)
“The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History” by Jennifer Armstrong, Illustrated by Roger Roth (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $34.95)
“Brother Juniper” by Diane Gibfried, Illustrated by Meilo So (Clarion Books, $16)
“Children’s Miscellany Too: More Useless Information That’s Essential to Know” by Matthew Morgan and Samantha Barnes, Illustrated by Niki Catlow (Chronicle Books, $12.95)
“Dizzy” by Jonah Winter, Illustrated by Sean Qualls (Scholastic, $16.99)
“Flotsam” by David Wiesner (Clarion Books, $17)
“Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels The Pioneers of Country & Western Music” by Holly George-Warren, Illustrated by Laura Levine (Houghton Mifflin, $16)
“John, Paul, George and Ben” by Lane Smith (Hyperion Books for Children, $16.99)
“Mites to Mastodons: A Book of Animal Poems” by Maxine Kumin, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (Houghton Mifflin Company, $16)
“My Little Matryoshicas” by Tanya Roitman (Blue Apple Books, $14.95)
“Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation” by Linas Alsenas (Scholastic Press, $16.99)
“The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct” by Moo Willems (Hyperion Books for Children, $16.99)
“The Enchanted Dolls’ House” By Robyn Johnson (Handprint Books, $24.95)
“Welcome to Zanzibar Road” by Niki Daly (Clarion Books, $16)
“Where Does Pepper Come From And Other Fun Facts” by Brigitte Raab, Manuela Olten (North-South Books, $15.95)