THE STRANGER, written and illustrated by Chris...

THE STRANGER, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton Mifflin: $15.95; 32 pp., age 4 up). Last year, Chris Van Allsburg won the Caldecott Medal for his magical Christmas story, “The Polar Express.” One could get carried away mentioning his awards and his illustrations that combine fine art with sumptuous scenes reminiscent of the old masters. That he can spin a yarn compatible to these drawings is evidence of a remarkable talent.

“The Stranger,” his seventh and probably most mysterious book, opens as Farmer Bailey finds a man lying in the road, dazed and somewhat odd looking because of his rough leather clothes. The stranger is taken to the house where a doctor says it’s just a bumped head and amnesia, nothing serious. The fellow stays on with the family, helping with the fall harvest and even kicking up his heels to their evening fiddle music.

Summer weather at the farm continues, although the rest of the countryside is bursting into autumn colors, and geese are soaring into southward flight. The stranger stares hypnotically at these birds and realizes he must move on and--as if he were Jack Frost or Old Man Winter--the season cannot change without him.

Intimate peeks into daily life are something Van Allsburg manages comfortably. The pigtailed girl eavesdropping from a polished staircase is as familiar as the cats who glare at a bird splashing in its bath. Afternoon sunlight reflects off upstairs windows as the stranger disappears down the road, the air now cold and the leaves no longer green. Readers will likely return to these beautiful pages whatever the season.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (retold) (Allen D. Bragdon Publishers, 153 West 82nd, N.Y., N.Y. 10024: $9.95; 50 pp.; all ages). Bravo to the enlightened publisher who has changed this edition’s first sentence from the original which had suggested little girls must be pretty and charming in order to be loved. Other violent details are eliminated but not to the detriment of this classic French tale, first printed in 1696 as Le petit chaperon rouge. This heirloom facsimile is cloth-bound, sewn with sturdy thread, and has those lovely old-fashioned drawings at every turn. Their colors upon yellowed pages give this the warmth of an actual antique.