FOR OLDER READERS

Older children are a tough audience. Listed here is a sampling of new books with the best chance of satisfying them--from nonfiction about animal derring-do, to novels about teen-age dilemmas.

SPEAK! Children’s Book Illustrators Brag About Their Dogs, edited by Michael J. Rosen (Harcourt Brace: $13.95; ages 8 and up). It’s clear what joy the 43 artists represented here took in having the chance to lovingly depict favorite canine companions and their shenanigans. William Joyce pictures his black dachshund, Tiny, wearing a space helmet and armed with a laser gun, to show what a fiercely protective “wonder dog” he is. (Even a ferocious swarm of hornets is no match for Tiny, claims the author). Victoria Chess’ sheep dog Bruno is also, if the artist is to be believed, a near-genius as well as a forager of the first order; he invariably returns from neighborhood jaunts bearing unusual tributes--dead squirrels, a live chicken, a giant zucchini, an unopened can of evaporated milk. These brief vignettes are entertaining, and the artwork is extraordinary--a great book for either dog-lovers or young artists. Some of the profits will go to humane organizations around the world.

NEWS FROM THE FRINGE: True Stories of Weird People and Weirder Times (Plume: $8 paperback), compiled by John Kohut and Roland Sweet (co-authors of “News of the Weird”) contain journalistic tidbits plucked from newspapers worldwide and will please those who appreciate the beauty of the odd. Like the teen-ager in L.A. who burned down two barbershops because he didn’t like haircuts he got there. Or the Borneo orangutan who stole a French tourist’s clothes, including underwear, and fled into the jungle with them. There’s much more bizarrerie in this compulsively readable book--proof that truth is more eccentric than fiction.

Playing fast and loose with the truth, authors Henry Beard and Ron Barrett explain THE WAY THINGS REALLY WORK (and How They Actually Happen) (Viking: $14.95; ages 12 and up) in their illustrated guide to “Everything From the Candy Machine That Eats Your Quarters to Why It Always Rains on Weekends.” The Mad-magazine-style humor of Beard (author of “French for Cats”) is a perfect match for the zany drawings of Barrett (illustrator of the wacky picture book, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”). You’ll be intrigued to learn, for example, about the key role “garble lozenges” play in “Why Announcements in Trains and Bus Stations Are Unintelligible.” Guaranteed to make modern life less of a mystery.

Eighth-grade life is a total mystery to the hero of NO EFFECT by Daniel Hayes (Godine: $15.95; ages 11 and up), a light-hearted novel about an eighth grader who joins the high-school wrestling team, hates his coach, falls in love with his teacher and finds out his teacher is in love with his wrestling coach. Whew! True stories about legendary sports figures with equally complicated lives include ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Hercules in America, and JIM THORPE: 20th Century Jock (HarperCollins: $14 each), both by Robert Lipsyte; they are the first two books in a “Superstar Lineup” series.

A gutsy fictional heroine trying to make sense of her life is 12-year-old Buhlaire Sims of PLAIN CITY (Blue Sky / Scholastic: $13.95) by Virginia Hamilton, award-winning author of “Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush” and many other books. Being from across the tracks in her Midwestern hometown is the least of Buhlaire’s troubles. She also has a would-be boyfriend who disses her during school--then follows her at a distance the rest of the day--a missing dad whom everyone but her knows the truth about, and a mostly absent mom who makes her living singing and “exotic” dancing. To say nothing of what her classmates view as her odd looks: gray-green-blue eyes, golden “rasta” hair and light caramel skin. Though life’s handed Buhlaire an intimidatingly full plate, she doesn’t back away from the job of deciding what will feed her growing soul, and what can be scraped into the trash. What she ends up with is a found (if seriously flawed) father, a mother who’s closer (but still travels) and a boyfriend who’s for real.

The heroine of MISSING ANGEL JUAN by Francesca Lia Block (HarperCollins: $14; ages 12 and up) is a teen-ager named Witch Baby who believes in miracles. She leaves her L.A. home and the tofu-happy hippies who’ve adopted her to search for Angel Juan, the wayward Mexican-American boyfriend she adores--even though she knows it’s a totally “clutchster” thing to do. In New York City during Christmas week she braves an evil demon named Cake who preys on runaways, and finds the kindly, if tormented ghost of her “almost-grandpa” as well as a bunch of insights into her own inner conflicts--and Angel Juan. Block, whose earlier stories based on these characters (beginning with “Weetzie Bat”) have won a host of awards in the “reluctant readers” category, is a glitteringly poetic stylist. Her knowledge of human nature is deep, and her heroine is tough, hip, loving and self-aware, with all her feelings--even the really painful, inconvenient ones like fear and spitefulness--intact. You can’t help but love her and the unorthodox way she makes her Christmas merry.*