Top 10 for Children

Nonfiction

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Scientific Derring-do

In the engaging Quest for the Tree Kangaroo (Houghton Mifflin, $18; ages 10-14), Sy Montgomery recounts a two-week expedition to investigate the famously elusive and increasingly rare Matschie's tree kangaroo. Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop tagged along with scientist Lisa Dabek as she journeyed to where these cuddly-looking creatures make their homes, an area of Papua New Guinea's cloud forest so isolated that it can be reached only by an arduous three-day trek.

Together, Montgomery and Bishop convey the challenges of such an expedition, which involves several other scientists and a contingent of locals who carry gear and provide valuable assistance as guides. Bishop's sharply focused photographs have a "you are there" quality, while Montgomery vividly captures the scientists' excitement when they snare several tree kangaroos -- each the size of a small dog or overweight cat -- to fit them with radio collars for tracking from afar.

Those looking for more stories of scientists' derring-do might try Diving to a Deep-Sea Volcano (Houghton Mifflin, $17; ages 8-12), by Kenneth Mallory. Like Quest for the Tree Kangaroo, Mallory's engrossing tale of ocean-bottom exploration is part of the excellent "Scientists in the Field" series.

Death-Defying Escapes

In John Smith Escapes Again! (National Geographic, $16.95; ages 9-14), Rosalyn Schanzer spotlights forgotten episodes in the life of the British settler who was saved from death by Pocahontas. As Schanzer demonstrates in this attractive picture book biography, the Pocahontas rescue was just one of a dozen death-defying escapes by the swashbuckling Smith.

Schanzer describes how Smith was, at various times, a pirate, a captain in the Austrian Army, the slave of a beautiful Greek noblewoman, the president of the Jamestown settlement, an explorer, a mapmaker and an author. Schanzer's fact-filled text, complemented by colorful illustrations, ably makes her case that Smith was "America's first genuine superstar."

Unsung Heroes

Noted historian Thomas Fleming, meanwhile, focuses on unsung heroes in Everybody's Revolution (Scholastic, $19.99; ages 9-12), a riveting new take on the American Revolution. Fleming's point is simple: The war for independence involved people from a "startling variety of countries and races."

As proof, Fleming tells the stories of people such as Hercules Mulligan, an Irish tailor who outfitted British regiments while actually working as a spy for Gen. George Washington. He also describes how an African American woman known only as Mammy Kate rescued her Georgia master from his British captors by hiding him in a pile of laundry and carrying him to freedom. (The man, a future governor of Georgia, later freed her and gave her a plot of land and a house.)

Young readers will be particularly fascinated by the roles played by teens such as Elizabeth Zane, who risked her life under fire from British and Indian troops to fetch a vital keg of gunpowder for patriots. Numerous illustrations, plus the roominess of a picture book format, add extra interest to this look at how our country was born.

True Tales

For another fresh approach to our past, try The American Story: 100 True Tales From American History (Knopf, $34.95; ages 6 and up). In this treasury, Jennifer Armstrong highlights familiar subjects such as the midnight ride of Paul Revere, as well as lesser known events such as the great molasses flood in Boston's North End. Overall, the stories feature a wide array of people and places as Armstrong shows young readers how single events converge to create a "patchwork quilt of history."

Armstrong's clear writing, combined with the informative watercolor illustrations by Roger Roth, make this volume perfect for family read-aloud sessions.

Racing to Space

Neil Armstrong may have been the first human to set foot on the moon, but it took a cast of thousands -- in fact, a cast of 400,000 -- to get him safely there and back, as author Catherine Thimmesh relates in Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon (Houghton Mifflin, $19.95; ages 10 and up). Thimmesh mixes a breezy writing style with solid research to explain the challenges facing those who worked on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, from the seamstresses who created the 22-layer spacesuits to the engineers who crafted the heat shield that protected the astronauts during their spaceship's fiery re-entry to Earth.

Thimmesh's narrative puts readers in the middle of the excitement by relating how Apollo 11 workers dealt with crisis after crisis once the flight lifted off: a computer alarm that wouldn't shut off, a critical shortage of fuel, and worries over whether the parachutes would deploy correctly to slow down the spaceship as it came barreling down from space. Spectacular photos further ensure that readers will keep turning the pages of Thimmesh's race-to-space drama.

Readers interested in space might also want to check out Liftoff: A Photobiography of John Glenn (National Geographic, $17.95; ages 10 and up). Despite the unabashedly laudatory text by former Glenn aide Don Mitchell, Liftoff offers some compelling insights into the life of the first American to orbit the earth.

Art Star

Susan Goldman Rubin tackles the life of a very different American in her picture book-sized biography, Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter (Abrams, $18.95; ages 10-14). There's plenty here to interest young readers as Rubin explores how Warhol's artistic career developed from his childhood passion for art. The book features full-color reproductions of Warhol's work, photographs of the artist and an arresting graphic design. Readers taken by Warhol's style, meanwhile, will want to try some of the projects in Make It Pop! Activities and Adventures in Pop Art (Watson-Guptill, $12.95; ages 5-12), by Joyce Raimondo.

More of Everything

You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy the phenomenal photographs gracing the pages of The Amazing World of Sports (Sports Illustrated for Kids, $18.95; ages 7 and up). But sports buffs will get an extra kick from the trivia challenges and "did you know?" fact boxes on each two-page spread. ·

Karen MacPherson, the children's and youth services coordinator for the Takoma Park, Md., Library, writes a weekly children's book review column for Scripps Howard News Service.