More than 50 years ago Hardie Gramatky,...

More than 50 years ago Hardie Gramatky, an animator with Walt Disney Studios, decided to branch out on his own and pen a children’s book. The result was “Little Toot,” the tale of a lovable tugboat’s adventure in New York Harbor. Since its 1939 publication, scores of youngsters have listened to the story and stared at its inviting pages.

When the author died 10 years ago at age 72, he left behind the nearly completed manuscript of Little Toot and the Loch Ness Monster (G. W. Putnam’s Sons: $13.95; 48 pp.; ages 3-6) along with notebooks stuffed with sketches and ideas for the end product. His widow, Dorothea Cooke Gramatky--also an artist--colored several of his black-and-white drawings and fashioned two illustrations out of his original artwork. Their daughter, Linda Gramatky Smith, finished the text.

The result is clearly a labor of love. Curious as ever, Little Toot ventures across the ocean in search of the Loch Ness Monster, a “fierce, awful” creature, Grandfather Toot explains. The Scottish loch is crowded with “bleeping and blurping” boats, also hunting for Nessie. Finally, as mist rises on the water and the cliffs loom overhead, Little Toot meets the legendary monster and learns that things are not always as they seem. Toot’s courageous deed will please children right up to its satisfying end.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of another classic, “Very Hungry Caterpillar,” and, to celebrate, the artist has something new to charm youngsters. Eric Carle’s Animals Animals (Philomel Books: $18.95; 70 pp.; ages 4 and up) is a feast of color accompanying 60 poems about creatures from ants to yaks. Those familiar with Carle’s lumpy “Caterpillar” will immediately recognize his tissue paper collages and splashes of acrylics and finger paints.

Laura Whipple gathered the poems, from sources as diverse as Shakespeare and the Bible, American Indians and Japanese Haiku, X. J. Kennedy and Judith Viorst. Sample “The Octopus” by Ogden Nash.

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs, Is those things arms or is they legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus; If I were thou, I’d call me Us. One of the unspoken ideas behind picture books is that the text and illustrations should be able to tell the story independently of the other. A Country Far Away (Orchard Books: $12.95; 32 pp.; ages 3-6), written by Nigel Gray and illustrated by Philippe Dupasquier, will evoke blank looks in children who are only listening, but put those listeners on your lap, spread these pages in front of them and oh! What a story. The top half of each page shows a young African in his village, the bottom half shows a blond American in his suburban neighborhood. Each frame is richly detailed with parallels as well as distinctions between the two cultures. “Today it rained” shows the Africans joyously holding their hands to the sky as parched crops are watered; the Americans, meanwhile, are seen snug in their homes or walking under umbrellas.

Amy the Dancing Bear (Doubleday: $12.95; 32 pp.; ages 3-6) is singer/songwriter Carly Simon’s first book, based on a bedtime tale she told her children when they were wee and full of reasons about why they should be allowed to stay up later. Amy is a bear full of such excuses. She is charming and sweet, so the mother gives in--again and again. Predictably, Amy outlasts her mom and ends up putting her to bed. The illustrations by Margot Datz are lovely, with flowered borders and dreamy colors. The worst part is not that the small, italicized text causes eye strain, but that the mother is portrayed as being weak and indecisive.

Caldecott Medalist Paul Goble tells another delightful fable about the trickster named Iktomi (eek-toe-me), which in Lakota Sioux means spider. Native Americans love telling on this fellow who, like the spider of folk literature, is clever but careless and always showing off. A cautionary tale children are sure to understand without help from moralizing parents, Iktomi and the Berries: A Plains Indian Story (Orchard Books: $14.95; 32 pp.; ages 4-7) will teach children about hunting and berry gathering while its exquisite illustrations reveal traditional Indian dress, customs and sense of humor.

With Halloween around the corner, the shelves are heavy with new holiday books: tall, thick, silly, serious and wretchedly terrifying. The following are just a few of the best.

Angela Sommer-Bodenburg’s If You Want to Scare Yourself (Harper & Row: $12.95; 106 pp.; ages 7-10), illustrated by Helga Spiess, includes four short, shivery stories told to Freddy by his parents while he’s confined to bed with an infected leg. The pages have easy-to-follow type with excellent ink drawings.

Another easy reader is Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt, written by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and illustrated by Marc Simont (G. P. Putnam’s Sons: $11.95; 48 pp.; ages 6-9). Nate, the pint-size detective, and his dog Sludge are off on a new case: Rosamind’s kitten is missing; it’s Halloween night; the streets are dark, and there’s an old haunted house down the block! For those who like to burrow with a flashlight under the blankets, this slim book has a built-in shiny cover so there’ll be no telltale rustlings of a paper one.

The Spooky Eerie Night Noise, written by Mona Rabun Reeves and illustrated by Paul Yalowitz (Bradbury Press: $13.95; 32 pp.; ages 3-6), is a pleasant, not too spooky or eerie, story for preschoolers. The monster pictures are soft and droll, as is the surprise ending.