For Kids, a Passport to Imagination Land

What a wonderful world: Animals talk, paint and wear trousers; beds fly; stars fall in love. In the world of travel books for the very young, children can go to other lands and other centuries, unrestrained by logic, laws of physics or other unfortunate realities. All of the books below are hardcover and, except as indicated, intended principally for ages 4 through 8. If you have someone like that to read to, you're lucky -- you get to ride along.

-- Jerry V. Haines

· "Hugo and Miles in I've Painted Everything!" by Scott Magoon (Houghton Mifflin, $16, 40 pages, ages 7-10)

Hugo, an accomplished artist who happens to be an elephant, is in an "elephunk" -- he's run out of things to paint. His friend Miles determines that what Hugo needs is a trip to Paris. There the two see the sights and visit museums, but a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower makes Hugo realize that he merely needs to approach his subjects from a new angle. So back they go to Cornville, U.S.A., where Hugo now can appreciate his home town for the variety he never saw there before. It's a nice moral we all can appreciate. Magoon works incidental jokes into his illustrations (a bandit-like raccoon steals a painting from the Musee d'Orsay) and peppers his text with puns, some of which might require adult explanation ("Van Hugo" as a play on "Van Gogh," for example).

· "Adèle & Simon," by Barbara McClintock (Frances Foster Books, $16, 40 pages)

Meanwhile, also in Paris, Simon is busy losing things. Okay, not exactly "meanwhile," since the story takes place a century ago. McClintock bases her illustrations on the works of late-19th and early 20th-century artists, and traces the route of the two children on a 1907 map. Simon and his conscientious older sister, Adèle, take an after-school walk through the city, with the easily distracted Simon carelessly leaving things behind: his crayons at the Louvre, his coat at Notre Dame and a glove at a puppet show in the Jardin du Luxembourg. By the time they get home, Simon has some explaining to do, but there's a knock at the door, and there stand the shopkeepers, museum guard and acrobats they have met that day, returning Simon's lost goods. Sometimes it takes a village to pick up after a child.

· "The Love of Two Stars," by Janie Jaehyun Park (Groundwood, $16.95, 32 pages, ages 4-7)

In Korea, if it rains on the seventh day of the seventh month it is the tears of Kyonu and Jingnyo, celestial lovers permitted to see each other only once a year. Legend also has it that they're responsible for the fact that crows and magpies go bald in that season. Kyonu, the farmer, and Jingnyo, the weaver, fall into a love so consuming that they neglect their respective trades, thereby impoverishing their neighbors and annoying the king of the starry realm. Forced to separate, they are reunited, if only briefly, with the help of the animals, particularly the birds, that form a heavenly bridge for them to travel on. (In the West we know the lovers as the stars Altair and Vega.) Park's tapestry-like illustrations make the story rich and real.

· "Angelina's Island," by Jeanette Winter (Frances Foster Books, $16, 32 pages)

Angelina misses her island, Jamaica. Now living in Manhattan, she dreams of "star apples, breadfruit, callaloo, chocho, johnnycake," and she longs to "feel my toes in the dust of a dirt road." But instead of colorful tropical birds outside her window, there is only a gray pigeon. She particularly misses Carnival, but Angelina's mama finds out that New York has a Carnival, too. While Angelina practices her dancing, family and friends make an elaborate Carnival costume for her. Carnival Day itself sounds, looks and feels like home. Angelina has a new island.

· "My Father's Shop," by Satomi Ichikawa (Kane/Miller, $15.95, 32 pages, ages 4-6)

When little Mustafa discovers a hole in a beautiful rug in his father's shop, it seems like bad news. But, unable to sell it, his father gives it to Mustafa on the condition that he learn some foreign words, the better to serve the many tourists visiting the Moroccan market. Studying is boring, and Mustafa escapes. A colorful rooster in the market takes a fancy to the rug, crowing, "Kho Kho Hou Houuu!!" But tourists from different countries explain that roosters crow differently in their countries -- "qui-qui-ri-qui" in Spanish, for example. Soon the marketplace is buzzing, and the tourists all follow Mustafa back to his father's shop. Mustafa not only has learned how to "speak rooster," he's brought in new customers.

· "The Flying Bed," by Nancy Willard (text) and John Thompson (illustrations) (Blue Sky Press, $16.99, 48 pages)

In another shop, this one in Florence, things are not going so well. Guido inherited his father's bakery but, alas, not his skill. He can't afford even a bed, but his wife, Maria, insists. He finally finds one, a beautiful one, and it will cost nothing. There's a catch, of course: The last two people who slept in it died of fright. Soon Guido sees why, as the bed is alive, impatiently pacing the room, then flying -- with its occupants -- over the city at night, over the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and the red tile roofs. It also takes them to a spectral "master baker," who gives Guido a secret ingredient to make his baking a success. The story line wanders, and the conclusion is abrupt. But the detailed illustrations, which appear to combine photography with painting, reveal a city to charm you even if you lack a flying bed.