GIFTS : How to Please a Grumpit

The Old Smooth-Nosed Grumpit is very particular. He has to have waffles and sausages every Saturday morning. The thing is, only Mrs. Grumpit knows how to cook his sausages just right. But should he drop in for a visit, don’t despair; a new book tells you how to make Grumpits happy. It will also instruct you in the care and feeding of Purple-Furred Frizzles (they like color in their food), Plum-Tummied Chumps (they’re always hungry) and the Wandering Yumptee (a sandwich-lover).

All of these creatures--along with an entire menagerie of equally odd animals--can be found in “36 Strange Little Animals Waiting to Eat, With Simple Little Recipes to Make,” by Graham Percy and Roz Denny (Stewart, Tabori & Chang: $12.95, 32 pages), which may be the most endearing cookbook of the year.

You won’t buy the book for the recipes (unless, of course, you really feel the need for peanut-butter cupcakes with cherry pink icing or juicy Jell-O desserts), but the text and drawings are so enchanting that you find yourself wondering which 6-year-old of your acquaintance is ready to wander into the kitchen.

Don’t know any underage cooks? You might want to consider buying the book for a grown-up with a sense of wonder. The sort of person who, having made the acquaintance of the Pancake-Eared Inkstump, won’t be able to resist cooking up a batch of his flapjacks and applesauce.