The neighbors said Mama was daft even...

The neighbors said Mama was daft even to think of taking her five young ‘uns from St. Joe, Mo., to Californy, a 21-day trip by stagecoach. But Mama, determined to join Pa in the gold fields, packs a sack fat with everything her family will need and then bundles them all aboard the Wells Fargo coach. Author Sonia Levitin has based her rollicking, action-packed story, Nine for California, on letters and diaries of real 19th century travelers. Perils are abundant along the way--bandits, buffalo, bad weather and even boredom--but the contents of Mama’s sack are a match for the worst the way West can offer. Illustrator Cat Bowman Smith has supplied witty and energetic pictures that capture both Levitin’s high good humor and the look of long-ago.

Long-ago also provides the setting for Mama’s Perfect Present, but author-illustrator Diane Goode puts her story in a more cosmopolitan place: Paris. On the day of Mama’s birthday, her two children set off in search of the perfect present, accompanied by their energetic dachshund, ZaZa, who wreaks comic havoc whenever the insouciant kids’ backs are turned. Goode is a brilliant artist who manages to combine visual farce with an affectionate celebration of 19th century Parisian ambience and a surprising homage to Seurat and his most famous use of pointillism.

In Eleanor, another great illustrator, two-time Caldecott Medalist Barbara Cooney, provides an homage to Eleanor Roosevelt by telling--and illustrating--the story of the late first lady’s heartbreakingly sad childhood. To underscore Roosevelt’s emotional isolation, Cooney has chosen to place her protagonist at the edges or in the backgrounds of her pictures, which brilliantly re-create the look of a late 19th century world that combined privilege and poverty. Cooney has been creating extraordinary books for children for 56 years; “Eleanor” is among her best.

Lilly loves school, and readers will love Lilly, the mousechild who has appeared in two previous books by gifted author-illustrator Kevin Henkes. In Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse, she commands center stage in a memorably funny and engaging story of lively emotions, an understanding teacher, supportive parents and--oh, yes--that new purple plastic purse. The characters may be mice but the feelings depicted are authentically human and will bring smiles of recognition to every reader’s face.

From emotion to an invitation to imagination: Felicia Bond, who illustrated Laura Numeroff’s best-sellers “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” has provided both pictures and an irresistibly rhyming text for Tumble Bumble. Her story starts simply enough--”A tiny bug went for a walk. He met a cat and stopped to talk”--but things quickly become comically complicated in this cumulative tale and before you know it, a little boy finds a big surprise waiting for him at home. Hooray for imagination and hooray for Felicia Bond.

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NINE FOR CALIFORNIA. By Sonia Levitin . Illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith (Melanie Kroupa/Orchard: $15.95)

MAMA’S PERFECT PRESENT. Written and illustrated by Diane Goode (Dutton: $14.99)

ELEANOR. Written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Viking: $15.99, ages 5-10)

LILY’S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE. Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow: $15)

TUMBLE BUMBLE. Written and illustrated by Felicia Bond (Front Street: $13.95)