Some rawther clever tales for the young

Eloise Takes a Bawth, Kay Thompson with “additional plumbing” by Mart Crowley, Illustrated by Hilary Knight, Simon & Schuster: 80 pp., $17.95

Ever-irrepressible Eloise absolutely loves taking a bawth, and her devotees will absolutely love seeing her “splawsh, splawsh, splawsh” her way through a delightfully disastrous -- yet ultimately propitious -- time in the tub. “You have to be absolutely careful when you take a bawth in a hotel,” announces the famous Plaza-dweller, who ignores her own advice and turns on all the faucets (“Let that water gush out and slush out into that sweet old tub tub tub and fill it up to the absolutely top of its brim so that it can slip over its rim onto the floor if it wants to”).

A judicious use of blue on Hilary Knight’s trademark pen-and-inks traces the flow of water as it seeps from the penthouse through the floors of the Plaza into the grand ballroom, where workers feverishly prepare for the Venetian Masked Ball. Featuring two gatefold spreads, Knight’s drolly detailed pictures depict the hotel’s startled guests and employees as water gushes from such unexpected sources as elevator buttons and chandeliers. Oblivious Eloise, meanwhile, blissfully imagines herself driving a speedboat full throttle, water skiing and battling pirates in the Caribbean. A postscript explains that Kay Thompson and Knight collaborated on this book 40 years ago, and it has been brought to light with the help of playwright Mart Crowley. Since the buoyant art and humorously bubbly text surely rise to the level of its precursors, it’s high time this book appeared, “for Lord’s sake,” as Eloise herself might say. (Ages 5 and older)

*

Tribes, Arthur Slade, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House: 160 pp., $15.95

Arthur Slade’s (“Dust”) dense novel inventively uses an anthropological lens to view high school life. The narrator, 17-year-old Percy, explains in a prologue that his anthropologist father died in the Congo three years earlier, after being bitten by a tsetse fly. The teen then reveals that on the night his father died, “Dad materialized at my bedside, extended a ghost arm, and opened his fingers to reveal a pair of glowing spirit eyes and inserted the magical orbs into my sockets.” Percy thereafter refers to fellow humans as “hominids” and frequently relies on amusing anthropological jargon that occasionally grows grating. Yet the narrative effectively conveys why Percy is shunned by fellow students. His most astute observations come at the expense of his peers: “Numerous tribes exist in friction at our school. The Logo Tribe exhibits name brands wherever and whenever possible. The Lipstick/Hairspray Tribe performs elaborate appearance alterations to attract mates.”

Other highlights include a mystical parallel with the Ndebele tribe, with whom his father was working at the time of Percy’s birth, and the tribe’s ritual marking a boy’s entry into manhood. Despite the hero’s awkward anthropologic-speak (“No one ever knows what I’m talking about. What it means. No one!”), readers who admire the fellow’s spirit may well enjoy this unusual treatise on high school culture; a concluding twist brings this tale down to Earth. (Ages 12 and older)

*

Be Boy Buzz, bell hooks, Illustrated by Chris Raschka, Jump at the Sun/Hyperion: 32 pp., $16.99

This stunning volume celebrates all things boy. The creators of “Happy to Be Nappy” set the stage with a bold opening sortie: “I be boy” appears on the left of the spread, paired with a deceptively simple layering of rectangles in blue line that pulsates on the page; opposite, a thoughtful-looking fellow, all elbows and knees slightly bent, seems poised for action.

This spare, poetic riff on young manhood plumbs the delights and contradictions of what it means to be a boy, particularly an African American boy, in a brief handful of sentences and a few well-placed pastel lines that imply motion and emotion. From boys soaring (“All bliss boy”) to boys sulking (“All bad boy beast”), at play (“I be boy jumping”) and at rest (“all think and dream time”), the words pinpoint boyhood’s unflagging energy and exuberance, vulnerability (“Hug me close. Don’t let me down.”) and attitude.

bell hooks’ rhythmic blend of brevity and eloquence launches Chris Raschka’s trademark visual haiku. His series of watercolor and pastel portraits set off against a warm cappuccino backdrop conjures fingers and toes, features and squiggles of hair from simple sweeps of his brush, evoking characters suffused with humanity and tenderness. This life-affirming book will have readers as much “in love with being a boy” as are its own utterly irresistible characters. (Ages 4-8)

*

Silly & Sillier: Read-Aloud Tales From Around the World, Judy Sierra, Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev, Alfred A. Knopf: 96 pp., $19.95

In this spirited collection, reteller Judy Sierra (“Nursery Tales Around the World” and its sequel, “Can You Guess My Name?: Traditional Tales Around the World,”) once again rounds up a bevy of brief, traditional tales. Here, 20 stories from countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Borneo, Mexico and the Czech Republic range from some that will be entirely new to youngsters to riffs on familiar yarns (among them a Russian variation on the tale of a mitten that expands to shelter woodland animals and a cumulative Irish tale with a refrain akin to that of “The Gingerbread Man”).

In the volume’s funniest offering, “Juan Bobo” from Argentina, a simpleton inadvertently wins the hand of a princess. Valeri Gorbachev (“Nicky and the Big, Bad Wolves”) utilizes her signature renderings of animals endowed with bold personalities to great effect here. Vignettes build the tension in “The Wonderful Pancake” as various pursuers join the fray, while a two-thirds-page spot illustration captures the climactic moment when “Bear Squash-You-All-Flat” bursts the mitten in the Russian story. Though several selections seem a bit slight, well-timed repetition, alliteration, sound effects and copious dialogue from a variety of characters make most of the stories lively choices for reading aloud. Gorbachev’s illustrations reflect the international settings and reinforce the playfulness of the tales. (Ages 5-8)*

Reviews are provided to Book Review by Publishers Weekly, where they first appeared. Copyright 2002, Publishers Weekly.