Everywhere Joseph Kaye looks, things are a...

Everywhere Joseph Kaye looks, things are a bit odd. The tea kettle seems to be turning into a cat, and what’s that sprouting from the couch? His parents said things were going to be different--is this what they meant? Changes by Anthony Browne (Alfred A. Knopf: $14.95).

Dinosuar burglars make off with the jewels, but justice prevails in Dinosaur Chase by Carolyn Otto, illustrated by Thacher Hurd (Harper Collins: $14.95).

At night, a little girl takes her big cat to the Milk Pool. A boy rides his dog to the Bone Gardens, while another pair sits companionably on the banks of Cricket Creek. All in the land of The Big Pets by Lane Smith (Viking: $14.95).

Writer Cynthia Rylant and illustrator Barry Moser grew up in the Appalachian mountains. In Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: $14.95), they try to explain why people who live there tend to stay, and “those who do go off . . . nearly always come back.”

Illustrator Jan Brett sets Edward Lear’s classic rhyme, The Owl and the Pussycat, in the Caribbean, and what a sumptuous place it is: The lovers still dine “on mince and slices of quince,” but the flowers are lush and the undersea life abundant (Putnam: $14.95).

What a day for The Happy Hippopotami! From flirting hippopotamisses to weight-lifting hippopotamights and popsicle-buying hippopotapoppas, they’re all enjoying their afternoon at the beach. By Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Betsy Everitt (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: $12.95).

There is mischief afoot at a provincial market when a farmer arranges his daughter’s marriage and then changes his mind. A retelling of Nikolai Gogol’s Sorotchintzy Fair comes alive with Gennadij Spirin’s spirited illustrations (David R. Godine: $16.95).

When storytellers Don and Audrey Wood count Piggies on their fingers, those little critters don’t do anything as simple as go the market or stay home (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: $13.95).

Dinosaur burglars make off with the jewels, but justice prevails in Dinosaur Chase by Carolyn Otto, illustrated by Thacher Hurd (Harper Collins: $14.95).