HOLIDAY BOOKS: Picture books for young children

By Eliza Wheeler (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, $17.99)

"Dad lives with the angels now, and we need to find a new home." This poignant book by a Minnesota artist/writer begins in sadness as a widow and her eight children load their possessions into a wheelbarrow and trudge down the road to a tarpaper shack. Over the course of a year, they fix up the house, plant a garden, piece quilts, can vegetables, and learn to love this new, simple life. The book is based on the life of Wheeler's grandmother, whose family made a home in the Wisconsin woods during the Great Depression.

By Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illustrated by Ellen Beier (South Dakota Historical Society Press, $9.95)

As the Driving Hawk children trudge to school, a shivering young Virginia thinks about the charity boxes that will soon arrive at their South Dakota reservation. She needs a winter coat, but as the daughter of the town's Episcopal priest, she gets last pick. The perfect coat does, indeed, arrive — but it is chosen by another girl. And then the plain brown coat that Virginia is given is taken away for someone who, Virginia's mother says gently, needs it more than she does. Will there be a Christmas miracle? This story of giving and receiving — back in print after eight years — is illustrated with paintings so evocative they will make you shiver.

By Alison Farrell (Chronicle Books, $17.99)

Three girls and a dog head out on a hike. They start at a dead run ("We run like maniacs," they say) and they are determined to get to the top of the mountain. Soon they slow down and begin paying attention to the details of the forest — berries, woodpeckers, animal tracks. They get lost. They study their map. They find their way again. They sketch what they see in a notebook. This breezy book of derring-do and friendship celebrates diversity and girl power as well as the glories of the natural world.

By Jon Klassen (Candlewick, $49.99)

By Susan Cooper, illustrated by Carson Ellis (Candlewick, $17.99)

When you pair a Newbery Medalist (Cooper) with a Caldecott Honor winner (Ellis), the result is a moving song about solstice, death and rebirth. Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" has been performed each winter for decades. Ellis' awe-filled gouache paintings move seamlessly from ancient times to modern, reminding us of the eternal cycle of the year — sadness as the days grow shorter, ebullience at the reappearance of the sun.

By Joowon Oh (Candlewick, $16.99)

Papa is a creature of habit: Get up, water the plants, go to the dumpling house for lunch. But on Thursdays something special happens — that is the day his granddaughter visits, the day they make crafts and fly kites. Joowon Oh's sweet story is dedicated to her father, and her bright watercolor-and-cut-paper illustrations have a fascinating 3-D pop. The two-page spread when granddaughter rushes into grandfather's arms is filled with joy.

By Abdul-Razak Zachariah, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo (Dial Books for Young Readers, $17.99)

Edited by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Marlena Myles (Millbrook Press, $19.99)

Quatrains and found poems, odes and narrative poems, acrostics and limericks, metaphors and echo poems — the pieces in this anthology are as diverse as their writers. Collected by Miranda Paul, a founding member of We Need Diverse Books, these poems by Sun Yung Shin, Lupe Ruiz-Flores, Sylvia Liu, Naomi Shihab Nye and others express gratitude for things large and small, concrete and abstract. "Paint the sunset with your eyes," writes Charles Ghigna. "Make your life a work of art." Stunning illustrations by St. Paul artist Marlena Myles glow with pinks and purples. The book gives bios of each writer and also explains each poetic form.

By James Christopher Carroll (Creative Editions, $19.99)

Mixed-media illustrations give a dreamlike quality to this poem. Carroll's words are few — no more than four to a page — giving space to his illustrations: swirls and circles, strange creatures and stylized trees, houses glowing with starlight. A girl hears a song and follows it into woods, where she encounters chickens and mice, alligators in harlequin pants, an elephant with a guitar. This gorgeous, mysterious book is published by a longtime Mankato publisher.

By Jen Campbell, illustrated by Katie Harnett (Thames & Hudson, $17.95)