Mensa for Kids: 75 Mind Mazes by Chronicle Books, Carlton Books

Barbara M. Joosse, Chronicle Books

Potter's sublimely quirky illustrations adorn this moving tale of death and remembrance set in Mexico and linked to the rhythms of the monarch butterfly. "Grandmother was my best Continue reading »

Tama Janowitz, Chronicle Books

This rather bland dialogue between a mother and son begins in a dim living room, where a TV illuminates the remains of dinner. In the doorway to an untidy hall, the ominous words "buzz, buzz, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Paul Cox

Experienced spellers may well rethink reading in this provocative alphabet, originally published in France as Animaux, which substitutes abstract shapes for Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Diane de Groat, Robin Jarvis

The spunky redheaded third-grader steals the show when she plays an artichoke in her school play, then follows up with a role as a swamp monster in a high school student's low-budget horror Continue reading »

Georgeanne Brennan, Chronicle Books

Winner of the Julia Child Award for Aperitif and the James Beard Award for The Food and Flavors of Haute Provence, Brennan Continue reading »

Lissa Rovetch, Chronicle Books

Rovetch (Sweet Dreams Little One) composes repetitive chants around single-syllable words, and the results are as catchy as they are vapid. The author creates Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Michael Hague

Certain to bring on a shiver or two, this volume presents a tale from Irish folklore, which Hague embellishes with suitably shadowy, eerie watercolors. The opening image effectively conveys the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joyce Eserky Goldstein

Dating back to ancient Rome, the enoteca, or wine bar—where people gather to relax, chat, taste regional wines and munch on Continue reading »

Margaret Park Bridges, Chronicle Books, M. Bridges

Two gray raccoons make the best of a rainy day in this call-and-response book by Bridges and Sweet (previously paired for Will You Take Care of Me?). When a Continue reading »

Kevin Yagher, Chronicle Books

Creepily realistic, the photographic tableaux that illustrate this otherwise mundane tale are hard to resist. Hollywood special effects whiz Yagher here creates a miniature world peopled by elves, Continue reading »

Barbara Hodgson, Chronicle Books

Hodgson's cleverly illustrated novel takes the reader on a fabulous journey, not only to the Aurora Islands, a mysterious trio of land formations that obsess the eccentric and delightful Continue reading »

Joseph Monninger, Chronicle Books

Gleaming like the sun hitting the 6,000-square-foot barn that gives Monniger's life—and the book—its mooring, this polished memoir follows the seasons, beginning in winter when Continue reading »

Bo Caldwell, Chronicle Books

Caldwell's memoirlike first novel begins in 1930s Shanghai, a city where enterprising foreign entrepreneurs can quickly become millionaires—and just as quickly lose everything as Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marianna Mayer, M. Mayer

In this collaboration from the creators of Pegasus, Mayer's animated retelling of Tom Thumb's adventures and Craft's affectionate portrayal of the Continue reading »

Diane Morgan, Chronicle Books

This primer on Thanksgiving cooking and traditions brims with fresh ideas for both food preparation and table decoration. Morgan (Cooking for the Week) is the Continue reading »

Maryana Vollstedt, Chronicle Books

With its bold graphics, attractive cover and clear, concise recipes, Vollstedt's latest has all the signs of an interesting work. Unfortunately, unlike James Peterson's excellent primer Continue reading »

Diane Wolkstein, Chronicle Books

PW called Begin's color-saturated acrylics, for this simple tale of friendship, "masterfully exacted." Ages 5-8. Continue reading »

Caroline Repchuk, Chronicle Books

Finished with crackle-grain varnish, Jay's (Picture This) droll and distinctive paintings add a winning component to this updated rendition of Aesop's Continue reading »

Bernard Clavel, Chronicle Books

An enterprising boy builds a castle out of books in this fanciful tale, which shouts with potential but never quite finds its voice. As young architect Benjamin works in secret, his bibliophilic Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Inc Philobolus

This volume does not feature ordinary asanas. In fact, according to the opening note, "It isn't even really yoga." This mind-bending collection of photographs and word play, presented Continue reading »

Rafael Palomino, Chronicle Books, Arlen Gargagliano

Nuevo Latino cooking is still waiting for its breakthrough cookbook, and while this effort from Palomino (Bistro Latino) and writer Gargagliano lacks the heft Continue reading »

Johanna Hurwitz, Chronicle Books

To her sizable roster of affable and believable young characters, Hurwitz (Class Clown) adds the endearingly bumbling Noah. Frequently eliciting the lament of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mark Bowden

Both Ambrose and Bowden have been in the news lately, Ambrose for allegations of plagiarism and Bowden as the author of the now screen-adapted Black Hawk Down. Continue reading »

Bob Barner, Chronicle Books

In this poetic ode to the night sky, Barner (Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!) gives a child's awestruck account of the stars and the solar system's nine planets. Continue reading »

Robb Walsh, Chronicle Books

Not every cookbook would include a recipe that begins, "Dig a pit 3-feet-deep, 4-feet-wide, and 40-feet-long." But this is Texas and, given 300 pounds of brisket, there is no more Continue reading »

Helen A. Harrison, Chronicle Books, Constance Ayers

Though the title may provoke a good-natured scoff in people familiar with Long Island's tony, increasingly suburban East End, this lovely coffee-table volume, which charts the area's Continue reading »

Steven Kroll, Chronicle Books

Nina's ire is stirred by her own limitations, by adults' underestimation, by rules and by toys that insist on getting lost. Kroll (The Biggest Pumpkin Continue reading »

Andy Harris, Chronicle Books

Harris (A Taste of the Aegean) returns to the Greek cuisine he loves in this beautifully designed and photographed book. Using customary Greek Continue reading »

Lois Anne Rothert, Chronicle Books

Of the 84 soups, potages, marmites and more that Rothert draws from 17 Gallic regions, some are unusual twists on tradition (Cabbage Soup with Walnut Oil) and others have stood for many Continue reading »

Johanna Hurwitz, Chronicle Books

This sequel to PeeWee's Tale follows Lexi the squirrel and PeeWee the guinea pig as they pair up to help a homeless man in Manhattan's Central Park. Continue reading »

Lauren Greenfield, Chronicle Books

Greenfield's stark photographs of girls and young women doing everything from practicing Tae-Bo in Beverly Hills to performing lap dances in Las Vegas aren't for the faint of heart. But Continue reading »

David Wisniewski, Chronicle Books

This book's endpapers trumpet a corny musical theme, performed by a parade of grinning mice: "If Mount Fuji blows its stack,/ If a monster should attack,/ Don't just hide inside your Continue reading »

Mie Araki, Chronicle Books

The right tools, a lot of encouragement and a few handily proffered Band-Aids work wonders in this jaunty debut. Lulu the hippo and Fred the rabbit are friends, but it drives Fred crazy that Lulu Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Slonim

Slonim's (illustrator of Moishe's Miracle) first solo book venture is a lighthearted caper with a kid-pleasing setting: a candy factory. The elfin Johnny Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Margaret Johnson

Johnson (The Irish Heritage Cookbook) returns once more to her roots and food heritage, this time presenting a volume that showcases the best of the new Irish Continue reading »

Star Livingstone, Chronicle Books

"In the author's debut novel, the eponymous star of this affecting reader is a pack llama-in-training who is destined for a different calling. What follows is a lyrical and wryly observed Continue reading »

Mary Corpening Barber, Sara Corpening Whiteford, Chronicle Books

Just in time for the June wedding season, Barber and Whiteford have collected 125 elegant recipes especially for newlyweds. These twin sisters, authors of Cocktail Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, James R. Petersen, Jim Peterson

You mean people don't read Playboy for the Nabokov stories and hard-hitting reportage? Sturdily produced, this is a candy-colored, unpretentious gaze over a Continue reading »

Yuyi Morales, Chronicle Books

When Señor Calavera, a dapper skeleton in a bowler hat, comes to call on Grandma Beetle, she puts him off with her quick thinking and her charming manner. "I will go with you right Continue reading »

Pegi Deitz Shea, Cynthia Weill, Chronicle Books

Weill, who worked for an international relief organization in Vietnam, Shea and Trang use a counting-book format to introduce readers to Tet—the Vietnamese new year—"as big a Continue reading »

Susan Verlander, Chronicle Books

If Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard had illustration software for the Noisy Books, they might have created these two volumes. Verlander's twin debuts include oversize, emotive Continue reading »

Marcus Sedgwick, Chronicle Books

Sedgwick's (Floodland ) jaunty rhymed couplets and Jay's (The Race ) signature stylized artwork ably accentuate the Continue reading »

Sid Goldstein, Chronicle Books, Sidney R. Goldstein

According to Goldstein, wine is a "magical ingredient" that "tenderizes and adds moisture to food, as well as imparting a deep, complex flavor." The author of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joyce Eserky Goldstein

Just when it seems there could be nothing new to say about the cuisine of Italy or the slow food movement that was born there, Goldstein dazzles with this selection of soups, stews, roasts, sauces Continue reading »

Martin Yan, Chronicle Books

Yan admits to having "eaten my way across Asia more times than I can count." Luckily, he collected plenty of recipes along the route. These recipes are for simple, traditional dishes, many Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Keith Hamm

Despite the subtitle, this homegrown, lowdown book comprises a full-blown history of skateboarding through paradigmatic case studies. Former Santa Barbara Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Bridgette Levin

Newcomers Levin and Shepherd propose that polite behavior might be different in the animal kingdom. "If your mom had a tail/ or your father a mane,/ the rules of your house/ might not be such Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Robert D. San Souci, Robet D. San Souci

With a princess who is not only kind but prefers "good books to good looks," San Souci's (The Talking Eggs ) clever adaptation of the classic British Continue reading »

Monica Wood, Chronicle Books, D.E. Ed. Wood

A near-fatal accident in the dark of night—30-year-old Lizzy is struck in a hit-and-run—sets in motion a complicated, surprising story of love, loss and sacrifice. When Lizzy was two, Continue reading »

Maryana Vollstedt, Chronicle Books

Food columnist Vollstedt's latest entry in her Big Book cookbook series (Casseroles, Breakfast, Potluck, Soups & Stews) is invaluable, as it contains an enormous assortment of Continue reading »

Nina Laden, Chronicle Books

In this dubious spoof, Laden (When Pigasso Met Mootisse ) gives the Bard's tragedy a happy ending and cats-versus-dogs households. Romeow, a cat belonging to Continue reading »

Linda Carucci, Chronicle Books

Carucci has no TV program or series of books to her name. She is, foremost, a teacher who has worked her way through the ranks of culinary America for 20 years. Trained at the California Culinary Continue reading »

Lori Longbotham, Chronicle Books

Former Gourmet editor Longbotham never met a berry she didn't like. Strawberries are "summer's brightest jewel"; raspberries have "flesh Continue reading »

Clark Taylor, Chronicle Books

A familiar nursery rhyme takes a decidedly dark turn in this sobering picture book. Written in a hip - hop rhythm and based on ``The House That Jack Built,'' the new cumulative rhyme focuses Continue reading »

Gary Soto, Chronicle Books

Soto is one of our most accomplished Mexican-American poets under the age of 45. In this collection, poems from six of his previous 13 books (The Tale of Sunlight; Home Course in Religion) and a Continue reading »

Bob Barner, Chronicle Books

Barner (Dem Bones) creates an enthusiastic book crawling with splashy bugs. From the eager, impatient first line--""Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! I want to see bugs!""--the book's narrative voice grabs Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Virginia Grossman

``There is a great deal of information and entertainment packed into this unusual counting book,'' said PW about this clever introduction to Native American culture. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Herb Caen, H. &. Byfield B. N. Caen

This intricately illustrated exploration of ``The City by the Bay'' is engagingly told by venerable SF columnist Caen. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »

Bob Barner, Chronicle Books, Design Inc Higashi/Glaser

Using a classic African American spiritual as a springboard, Barner dives gleefully into this clever anatomy lesson. Enthusiastic members of a skeleton band cavort across the pages, strumming Continue reading »

Madhur Jaffrey, Chronicle Books

A domestic region, defined by time rather than geography, is plumbed in Chronicle's Patio Daddy-o: `50's Recipes with a `90's Twist. Authors Gideon Bosker, Karen Brooks, Leland Payton and Crystal Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Karen Elizabeth

The conceit behind this playful, charming spoof of a book is as simple and bizarre as a Magritte painting: it is a guide to an imaginary Paris, complete with fake hotel listings, off-the-wall travel Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Francesc Bofill, Arnal Ballester

While these books' juxtaposition of English and Spanish texts may fill a need, the undistinguished retellings of familiar tales may deem the titles more suited to adult admirers of Spanish artist Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Arnal Ballester, Marta Mata I. Garriga

While these books' juxtaposition of English and Spanish texts may fill a need, the undistinguished retellings of familiar tales may deem the titles more suited to adult admirers of Spanish artist Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Francesc Bofill, Arnal Ballester

While these books' juxtaposition of English and Spanish texts may fill a need, the undistinguished retellings of familiar tales may deem the titles more suited to adult admirers of Spanish artist Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, John Duggleby, Jacob Lawrence

Duggleby (Artist in Overalls: The Life of Grant Wood) once again enlarges upon themes in an American artist's life and work to create a gratifying portrait of a particular time and place. Lawrence's Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Brothers Grimm, Brothers Grimm

Old-fashioned, often broken typeface and Arthur Rackham's gloriously reproduced original artwork accompany 22 stories in a new edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, originally published in 1909. A Continue reading »

Nina Laden, Chronicle Books

This tale of an investigator who tracks down an elusive chameleon, at the request of a lizard in distress, features bold pastel illustrations. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) Continue reading »

Dashka Slater, Chronicle Books

Slater's enchanting debut puts magic-realist devices to good use as it uncovers a complex family history. The interwoven narratives start in 1989, in Oakland, where 29-year-old single mother Julia Continue reading »

Chris Van Dusen, Chronicle Books, Chris Van Dusen

A chrome kitchen table, a buttercream-yellow Studebaker and other campy 1950s accessories distinguish this ebullient picture book. At daybreak, Mr. Magee, sporting a spiffy straw boater, and his Continue reading »

Roseanne Thong, Chronicle Books

Debut author Thong cleverly uses a concept book to celebrate Chinese culture. ""Round is a mooncake/ Round is the moon/ Round are the lanterns/ outside my room,"" explains the unnamed young heroine Continue reading »

Susan Simon, Chronicle Books

What do native Nantucket Islanders do during the winter when the summer visitors aren't looking? It turns out that they're doing quite a lot of sophisticated dining. Simon (The Nantucket Table), a Continue reading »

Rick Rodgers, Chronicle Books, Arlene Ward

While pressure cookers have been around for years, the new generation of quieter, safer and more efficient cookers is part of the inspiration for this collaborative cookbook. The book re-introduces Continue reading »

Norton Juster, Chronicle Books, N. Juster

Originally published in 1963, and back just in time for Valentine's Day, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth) once again bursts on the scene. Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

With brief, accessible text, engaging topics and a perforated page of collectible cards Seymour Simon's See More Reader series will rope in even the most reluctant readers. According to Danger! Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Caterpillar

Aspiring artists can learn how to draw a ""Track-Type Tractor"" and a ""Soil Compactor"" in the spiral-bound volume Drawing Trucks and Diggers, A Book of 10 Stencils. Each die-cut stencil page Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Terryl Whitlatch, Bob Carrau

In The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, Terry Whitlatch and Bob Carrau offer a faux naturalist's sketchbook of the fauna born of George Lucas and co.'s considerable imagination: the Continue reading »

Damon Burnard, Chronicle Books

Damon Burnard invites readers to play the familiar ""I Spy"" game on each page of I Spy in the Ocean and I Spy in the Jungle, both illus. by Julia Cairns. In a spread for Ocean, for example, Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Julie Merberg, Suzanne Bober

Two board books by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober introduce the works of world-renowned artists to the youngest audience. In each, lyrical text accompanies 10 masterpieces. A Magical Day with Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Julie Merberg, Suzanne Bober

Two board books by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober introduce the works of world-renowned artists to the youngest audience. In each, lyrical text accompanies 10 masterpieces. A Magical Day with Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kathleen Hague

Fairy Friends Bedtime turns magical in Good Night, Fairies by Kathleen Hague, illus. by Michael Hague, as a mother answers her child's questions about what fairies do at nighttime. The parent Continue reading »

Mahlon F. Craft, Chronicle Books, And KY Craft

So perfect are the Pre-Raphaelite details and gestures that it's easy to imagine Kinuko Craft's (Adventures of Tom Thumb) paintings hanging in a gallery. Her husband Mahlon Craft's enhanced Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sylvia Long

Chronicle continues its line of successful Block Books with a set based on Sylvia Long's Mother Goose. Sylvia Long's Mother Goose Block Books contains 16 chunky board books just right for small Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lisa Lebowitz Cader, Lisa Lebowitz

A trio of interactive offerings encourages youngster's participation. Royal headdress empowers common kids-plus readers-in When I Wear My Tiara and When I Wear My Crown, both by Lisa Lebowitz Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Tina L. Seelig

The Games for Your Brain series adds two titles: Bug Cards by Tina Seelig and Dinosaur Cards by Seelig, illus. by Robert Walters. Combining learning and fun, each box of cards contains information Continue reading »

Nina Laden, Chronicle Books

Nina Laden follows her popular Peek-a-WHO? and Ready, Set, GO! with Grow Up! The text asks readers to guess what a variety of young animals will grow up to be, and die-cut holes hint at the Continue reading »

Anne Gutman, Chronicle Books, Georg Hallensleben

New titles arrive in board book editions just right for small hands. Mommy Hugs and Daddy Kisses, by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben (the team behind the Gaspard and Lisa books), demonstrate Continue reading »

Anne Gutman, Chronicle Books, Georg Hallensleben

New titles arrive in board book editions just right for small hands. Mommy Hugs and Daddy Kisses, by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben (the team behind the Gaspard and Lisa books), demonstrate Continue reading »

Robert Louis Stevenson, Chronicle Books

A plethora of poetry books arrive just in time for National Poetry Month. Now available in a board book edition, A Child's Garden of Verses, compiled by Cooper Edens, pairs eight of Robert Louis Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lucie Young

Part of Chronicle's Compact Design Portfolio series, this small-format illustrated volume showcases the graceful, curvy Modernist ceramic pieces of Hungarian-born industrial designer Eva Zeisel Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Bob Craddock, Smithsonian Institution

Beautifully designed by Laura Lovett, Chronicle Books's latest clever gift box brings together reproductions of 16 artifacts from man's first trip to the moon. Among the goodies are a copy of the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Elissa Stein, Davide Mazzanti

Stylishly designed with eye-catching page layouts and beautiful images, this history of the""the wasp"" will delight any Vespa aficionado. The late Roberto Segoni, professor of industrial design at Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Janet Kessel Fletcher

An award-winning food writer for the San Francisco Chronicle pairs pasta with seasonal vegetables in a succinct collection of recipes that should become a family standby. Focusing on fava beans in Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Stephen P. Williams

Dubya may already know the ropes, but John Kerry might find this handbook useful should he find himself residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next year. If the general state of affairs hasn't improved Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, George Thomson

In medieval times, monks spent years translating and reproducing texts for church libraries, and they often embellished their script with ""gilded patterns or designs,"" giving birth to the art of Continue reading »

Diane Morgan, Chronicle Books

A beautiful cookbook with impressive photographs, Morgan's volume contains many tasty recipes, but it's not really a complete introduction to salmon. A number of her dishes are influenced by Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Combining breathtaking landscape photographs with glowing, tour-guide-like descriptions, this coffee-table book is an excellent peek into one of the most gorgeous locations in the country. Cain takes Continue reading »

James McNair, Chronicle Books

McNair (Cold Pasta, etc.) demonstrates that the versatile fowl is an international favorite with Thai spicy chicken coconut soup; Japanese boiled chicken with sesame dipping sauce; Hungarian chicken Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Henry T. Hopkins

In his informative but uninspired survey, Hopkins, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, provides a necessarily schematic overview of those historical developments and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Judith Dunham

Dunham's second anthology surpasses her handsome The Art of the Trout Fly in format and text (also price), while falling a little short of the inspired photographic stylings that were the charm of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Virginia Grossman

There is a great deal of information and entertainment packed into this unusual counting book, which opens with ``One lonely traveler riding on the plain.'' The strikingly detailed accompanying Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Martha Zamora

The work of Kahlo (1907-1954), a Mexican painter of painful, irresistible power, comes to life in the brooding self-portraits, potent parables of nature, and politically charged mythologies Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Ken Hom

Purists and food snobs, look elsewhere for instructions on staging a complete Szechuan banquet. Instead, this is a bonanza for American cooks who like Chinese-style dishes and want to learn how to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marcia Tucker, Deborah Butterfield

More than 60 gorgeous color illustrations of Butterfield's horse sculptures appear in this book, which includes a captivating interview and a thought-provoking critique. The horses here, created Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kandy Radzinski

Although billed as a children's book, this cat-happy twist on the traditional English Christmas song is best targeted to hard-core feline fanciers of any age. These people won't care that the lines Continue reading »

Babette Cole, Chronicle Books

Cole ( Supermoo ) unleashes her endearingly loony sense of humor on the subject of the birds and the bees, and the result is, as expected, hilarious. When a thoroughly befuddled set of '90s parents Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

Gray Wolf, bereft of his mate, hunts alone in the snow-bright night, unknowingly infringing on another pack's territory. ``His eyes burn like steady flames. The leader of the pack stares back. Their Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, John Miller

James Thurber's curmudgeonly satire on the American mania for sending Christmas cards, John Cheever's bittersweet tale of a lonely New York elevator operator, Anne Sexton's deeply ambivalent lyric Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Hockney

How the act of visual representation affects what we see--a theme of Hockney's paintings--is a major concern of this lively, unpretentious memoir edited by his friend Stango, who is an editor at the Continue reading »

Claire Masurel, Chronicle Books, M. Henry

Originally published in France, this slight but agreeable bedtime book features a young girl who, with pajama bottoms slipping down and one shoe off, rounds up her sleeping companions--an assortment Continue reading »

Diane Morgan, Chronicle Books, Sally Morgan

Four experienced cooking instructors with an irresistible love of their subject go far toward teaching beginners in the kitchen to learn to cook and to learn to love cooking. Starting off with a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mimi Luebbermann

Part of the publisher's Garden Style series, Luebbermann's book explores climbing vines from half a dozen different angles, discussing vines suitable for growing indoors, those that are colorful, Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

``A perfect picture book,'' said PW about this seasonal paean graced with a simple text and cheery artwork. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Culinary Institute of America

No threat to national security, this companion volume to an upcoming PBS series featuring the highly regarded culinary teaching institution is instead quite reassuring. Selected by C.I.A.-trained Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joan Sweeney

Living among the water lilies of Monet's country home, frogs Hector and Henriette and their tadpoles happily ``pose'' for the bearded artist who paints their pond each day. First-time author Sweeny Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jeannette Ferrary

The nearly universal appeal of soups, the authors' lively prose style and the use of varied typefaces hold promise for this collection that is on the whole limited by the puzzling design approaches Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Ulrich Luckhardt

British-born artist David Hockney has lived in L.A. since the 1970s. His luxuriant drawings of California, with their Mediterranean-like idyll of blue skies, palm trees and swimming pools, speak of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mike Lankford

Lankford, who was born in Oklahoma in 1951, isn't famous, nor does he know anyone who is. Like legions of teenagers before him, he fell in love with rock and roll and chose to play the drums. He Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Fanny Joly

In this lithe tale from a French team, a lonely porcupine gains confidence when he finds love. Like many a misunderstood hero, Mr. Fine has a scary appearance that doesn't match his amiable Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anne Gatti

Mozart's most child-friendly opera receives the royal treatment in this elegant yet highly approachable picture book. Accompanied by the sweet strains of musical highlights (if readers wish, they can Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Ellen Rose, Jessica Strand

The first effort by bookseller Rose (founder of Cook's Library in L.A.) and journalist Strand partially succeeds as it offers a dozen menus (three per season, one each for parties of two, four and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jeff Taylor, Rich Taylor

Taylor's latest collection of hilarious and often poignant essays is as bracing as a cool drink on a hot day. Using the same format he plied in Tools of the Trade (1996), Taylor zeroes in on a couple Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kathleen Alcala, Charles Simmons

Starting where her Spirits of the Ordinary ended, near the time of the Mexican Revolution, the disappointing second volume of Alcal 's projected trilogy chronicles three generations of women Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marta Mata I. Garriga, Marta Mata

While these books' juxtaposition of English and Spanish texts may fill a need, the undistinguished retellings of familiar tales may deem the titles more suited to adult admirers of Spanish artist Continue reading »

Barbara M. Joosse, Chronicle Books

Joosse (Mama, Do You Love Me?) embarks on a rambling road as she follows a 19th-century father and son traveling from their home by the Wisconsin River to Santa Fe, where they plan to sell their Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joie Warner

There is no need to sweat over a hot stove, Warner (All the Best Pasta Sauces; All the Best Pizza) says, when you can prepare simple yet often elegant pasta sauces that don't require cooking. To Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Anitra Peebles Sheen, Anita Sheen

Sheen makes a strong debut with this moving, partly autobiographical, bittersweet coming-of-age story set in 50s Los Angeles. When four-year-old Jorie Mackinnons mother dies of polio, she faces an Continue reading »

David Standish, Chronicle Books

Beginning with the sunflowers on the Netherlands' 50-gulden note (Standish loves them) and ending with the redesigned American fives, tens and twenties (hates them), Standish's handsome, offbeat and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Irene Morck

A herd of cattle stampeding across the endpapers hints at the subject of this feisty picture book, in which a boy breaks in a shiny new pair of cowboy boots. Pleased as punch with his footgear, Tyler Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Margaret Johnson

Food writer and Massachusetts native Johnson delivers a fresh perspective on Irish cookery with an engaging collection of recipes culled from Irish (and Irish-American) chefs, hoteliers and long-time Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London, London And Chaffee

""This eminently approachable book gives eloquent testament to the first pair of California condors to return to the wild since 1987,"" said PW. Ages 3-8. Continue reading »

Georgeanne Brennan, Chronicle Books

Moving beyond the French table (Potager: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style; The Food and Flavors of Haute Provence), Brennan explores the light and easy side of Mediterranean-herb-inspired Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joan L. Margalith, Joan Margolith

Babies don't need the stork to facilitate their arrival--they simply fall gently to earth in baskets, like raindrops--according to this compact gift book (the frontispiece provides a space to write a Continue reading »

Madeleine L'Engle, Roxie Munro, Chronicle Books

HReaders raised on L'Engle's thoughtful novels (A Wrinkle in Time) will discover a new side of the writer in this impish, tongue-in-cheek memoir. Ostensibly the L'Engle family poodle's account of the Continue reading »

Margaret Park Bridges, Chronicle Books

The title question so intrigues a spunky redheaded girl that she engages in a daylong dialectic with her bemused mother. ""You're littler than I am,"" explains her mother as she helps the girl get Continue reading »

Johanna Hurwitz, Chronicle Books

A guinea pig narrates Hurwitz's (One Small Dog) endearing story of the furry fellow's adventures in New York's Central Park. Nine-year-old Robbie, though disappointed when his uncle gives him a Continue reading »

J. Otto Seibold, Chronicle Books

Seibold and Walsh (Olive, the Other Reindeer), specialists in hip digital graphics and comic excess, expose the reveries of a flightless bird. Chongo Chingi the penguin initially appears against a Continue reading »

Kristine L. Franklin, Chronicle Books

Right from the cover image, fans of Mama, Do You Love Me? will recognize Lavallee's enchanting watercolors of the frozen North. Franklin's (The Old, Old Man and the Very Little Boy) resonant tale of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Tish Boyle

This fun collection celebrates exactly the desserts you'd expect from America's diners: fluffy Chocolate Cream Pie, three-layer High and Mighty White Cake and chewy Old-Time Peanut Butter Cookies. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Graphic design is key in this petite volume, boldly illustrated in black and white. ""I am an exceptional cat,"" declares Milton, rolling on his back in a horizontal shot. ""I am extremely handsome Continue reading »

Kitty Morse, Chronicle Books

Author of many books on Moroccan cooking, including The Vegetarian Table, Morse divides the couscous recipes here into two categories: traditional and contemporary. The traditional recipes are all Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Judith Ross Enderle, Judith Ross Enderle

A cursory look at cultural influence complicates this celebratory look at a street fair, which includes a mouthwatering set of international recipes. While Mischa's grandmother makes golubtsi Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lucrecia Guerrero

Guerrero's debut collection creates a fictional Mexican-American border town named Mesquite as the setting for most of its 11 stories. This imagined locale gains authenticity as the hopes, anguish Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Celeste Kadatz, Celeste Kndutz

Aimed at teenage girls, Leave Your Mark Here: A Journal by Celeste Kadatz, illus. by Tracy McGuinness, challenges readers to respond to such questions as ""What really bugs you?"" (""Snarly dogs Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marianna Mayer

Also celebrating an anniversary--its 30th--is Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Kraus, illus. by Jose Aruego. Minimalist art and memorable text are more than the sum of its parts: ""Whose mouse are Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

Photos of objects beyond the detection of the human eye--either because they are infinitesimal, too large, too far away or hidden inside the human body--are reproduced with remarkable clarity in Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Uzo Unobagha, Uzoamaka Chinyelu Unobagha

In the introduction to this collection, inspired by traditional Mother Goose rhymes, Nigerian-born Unobagha says that she hopes these verses about Africa will deliver ""important cultural messages to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, James K. McNair

With a plethora of pizza cookbooks on the market, any new contender has to survive by promising either trade secrets or the trendiest pie permutations. Despite a brief introduction on pizza history, Continue reading »

Joan Lowery Nixon, Chronicle Books, J. L. Nixon

Spirited alliteration and humorous illustrations propel this fast-paced beginning-reader whodunit. When Gus and Gertie, a pair of traveling penguins, hop off the ferryboat for their island vacation Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nicholas Jose

A mysterious but classic work of Chinese literature exerts an influence on an unusual love triangle in this beguiling new novel by Australian writer Jose (The Rose Crossing). In Jose's stylish Continue reading »

Robin Jarvis, Chronicle Books

First published in Britain in 1989 and making its first appearance on American shores, book one of the Deptford Mice Trilogy is a spooky and enthralling animal fantasy just right for Redwall fans. In Continue reading »

Lewis Carroll, Chronicle Books

An edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll contains all of Arthur Rackham's original artwork from the 1907 edition (published after Sir John Tenniel's illustrations). Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

The Web site Nerve.com pitches itself as ""literate smut,"" and this serious-looking book seems to be a logical step in its dot-diversification. In fact, there is nothing new about ""The New Nude,"" Continue reading »

Charise Mericle Harper, Chronicle Books

The phrase, ""When I grow up, I want to be...,"" typically precedes a career choice, but in this amiable debut volume, Harper fills in the blank with qualities like ""brave"" and ""determined."" Each Continue reading »

Keith Graves, Chronicle Books

It takes a trip to outer space and a case of role reversal to give a boy bored with his pets some perspective. One day, while searching for ever-more-novel animals, pet-collector Stanley is petnapped Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Francesc Boada

In another contribution to Chronicle's handsomely illustrated bilingual fairytale series, Cinderella/Cenicienta, adapted by Francesc Boada, Monse Fransoy's witty framed and spot illustrations feature Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Yves Got

The titular white bunny is back in two new board books: Sam's Little Sister and Sam Loves Kisses by Yves Got. In the first, Sam lists the things he and his sister, Sophie, do together. In the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jerry Roberts

Aspiring ship captains can fold 18 boats (all on waterproof paper) and float them with The Amazing Book of Paper Boats by Jerry Roberts, illus. by Willy Bullock. After a brief history of boats and Continue reading »

Roxie Munro, Chronicle Books

Roxie Munro uses eye-popping artwork to lead readers on a drive to the zoo in Mazescapes. Children are invited to navigate through aerial mazes with any of six punch-out cars; each maze connects Continue reading »

John Burningham, Chronicle Books

""Would you rather... your dad did a dance at school or your mom made a fuss in a caf ?"" John Burningham poses many more questions in Would You Rather... Humorous (and thought-provoking) Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Cooper Edens, Sheryl Abrams

Packaged in a resealable case, Sweet Dreams by Cooper Edens and Sheryl Abrams makes an elegant stocking stuffer. The playing-card-size deck contains 36 ""bedtime wishes,"" just right for tucking Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

With brief, accessible text, engaging topics and a perforated page of collectible cards Seymour Simon's See More Reader series will rope in even the most reluctant readers. According to Danger! Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

With brief, accessible text, engaging topics and a perforated page of collectible cards Seymour Simon's See More Reader series will rope in even the most reluctant readers. According to Danger! Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

With brief, accessible text, engaging topics and a perforated page of collectible cards Seymour Simon's See More Reader series will rope in even the most reluctant readers. According to Danger! Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

With brief, accessible text, engaging topics and a perforated page of collectible cards Seymour Simon's See More Reader series will rope in even the most reluctant readers. According to Danger! Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Michael Street

Readers learn how to play ""Fourteen Out,"" ""Captive Queens"" or ""Klondike"" in Lucky 13: Solitaire Games for Kids by Michael Street, illus. by Alan Tiegreen. Offering over 65 ways to play, the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Caterpillar

The sights and sounds of a construction site come to life in Big Noisy Trucks and Diggers. Children take the driver's seat as the text, along with road sign cues, tells them what to do while Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kristen M. Nobles, Cader Company

Youngest children can have a turn at the wheel in Drive This Book by Wernher Krutein and Bill Goidell. If they press a tire on each of 10 vehicles, they can hear the engines roar, including an Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mark Blum

Big Trucks and Diggers in 3D by Mark Blum allows readers to view a ""TH103 Telescopic Handler"" (named for an extension that stretches out like a telescope) and a ""854G Wheel Dozer"" through a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Yves Got

For those heading back to preschool and kindergarten, Sam's Big Book of Words by Yves Got features the busy bunny exploring the world around him. Each spread focuses on a heading (such as ""The Continue reading »

Barbara M. Joosse, Chronicle Books

A decade ago, PW called Barbara Joosse's Mama, Do You Love Me?, illus. by Barbara Lavallee, ""a striking volume which uses a timeless culture to convey a timeless message."" Chronicle celebrates Continue reading »

Barbara M. Joosse, Chronicle Books

Joosse's book joins another bestselling title, the text and illustrations of which inspire hours of fun as books-cum-nesting blocks. Mama, Do You Love Me? Nesting Blocks based on the book by Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Hayde Ardalan

The charming and self-assured feline introduced in Milton is back in Milton Goes to the Vet by Hayd Ardalan. Worn out after his trip to the vet (which wasn't as bad as Milton had expected), the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, James Calder

When Silicon Valley filmmaker Bill Damen learns that a guest at his girlfriend's dinner party has died, allegedly of food poisoning, the natural-born PI goes into investigative ""stealth mode""; a Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Claire Masurel, Chronicle Books

Christmas Is Coming! by Claire Masurel, illus. by Marie H. Henry, also a board book, captures a child's anticipation. Juliette and her stuffed animals trim the tree and hang the stockings, but Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, A. J. Wood, Maggie Kneen

The Pigglytoes family has different ideas about what makes Christmas special, but baby piglet understands that it doesn't come wrapped in a box. A.J. Wood's rhyming text and Maggie Kneen's Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jennifer Knapp

Kids can make ""Hollywood Handbags,"" folksy robots out of tin cans, ""funny putty"" and ""silly slime"" with Cool Crafts for Creative Kids by Jennifer Knapp. Most elements are already in the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Judith Cressy

The humblest of materials transform the pedestrian into the sublime in What Can You Do with a Paper Bag? by Judith Cressy, photos by Maria Quiroga and Christine A. Butler, illus. by Edward Heins. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Bernardino De Sahagun

Spirit Child: A Story of the Nativity, trans. by John Bierhorst, illus. by Barbara Cooney, and originally published in 1984, relates an ancient Aztec tale that dates back to the 16th century. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jean Baptiste Baronian

In Will You Still Love Me? by Jean- Baptiste Baronian, illus. by Noris Kern, a follow-up to I Love You with All My Heart, Polo the polar bear is sad because his mother and father are too busy to Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Robin Jarvis, Chronicle Books

First came The Dark Portal, then The Crystal Prison. Now, Robin Jarvis winds up the Deptford Mice Trilogy with The Final Reckoning. In this volume, evil sewer cat Jupiter comes back from the dead Continue reading »

Seymour Simon, Chronicle Books

The SeeMore Readers series by Seymour Simon continues with the addition of four new titles. Baby Animals and Fighting Fires are Level 1 readers (preschool to grade three); Level 2 readers (grades Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Yves Got

Bunny Sam returns in the padded-cover board book Sam's Christmas Word Book by Yves Got. With their thick black line and toy-bright colors, the cheerily childlike illustrations have something of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mymi Doinet

Designed in the rounded shape of a pumpkin, The Halloween Activity Book: Creepy, Crawly, Hairy, Scary Things to Do by Mymi Doinet, illus. by Benjamin Chaud, opens with a brief history of the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Frederic Clement

Frederic Clement's The Merchant of Marvels and the Peddler of Dreams (1995), trans. by Emma Cole, the tale of Frederick Knick-Knack and his quest for the perfect birthday gift for the friend who Continue reading »

Sally Gardner, Chronicle Books

Holding true to what the cover promises, The Fairy Tale Catalog: Everything You Need to Make a Fairy Tale by Sally Gardner offers a selection of ""good"" and ""bad fairies,"" ""tooth fairies"" and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Alain Crozon

Animal Instincts Alain Crozon hits the jungle for the latest addition to the Who Am I? What Am I? series, Who Am I? Wild Animals!, which features 21 animal riddles. On the left, three riddles fit Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Yves Got

The titular white bunny is back in two new board books: Sam's Little Sister and Sam Loves Kisses by Yves Got. In the first, Sam lists the things he and his sister, Sophie, do together. In the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marc Gellman, Rabbi Marc Gellman

Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman, the team behind How Do You Spell God?, speak directly to tweens and teens in Bad Stuff in the News: A Guide to Handling the Headlines. Beginning Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Joyce Raimondo

Matisse also figures prominently in The Museum of Modern Art's Art Safari Collage Activity Kit by Joyce Raimondo, former Family Programs Coordinator at the Museum of Modern Art. Focusing on Continue reading »

Monica Wood, Chronicle Books

Centering around the Tiananmen Square massacre and its aftermath, this remarkably structured and textured debut epic seeks to attach a face to the mysterious man who, by stepping in front of the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Alastair Fuad-Luke

From a solar electric bus to fashions made from recycled inner tubes, EcoDesign: The Sourcebook showcases some of the most innovative, environmentally friendly products and prototypes from around Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore's large-format color photographs offer breathtaking views of the Cuban capital's crumbling baroque splendor in Inside Havana. The photographs, a mix of street scenes and interiors, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mikyla Bruder

From an Otoh Gunga Cowabunga (featuring ""Bubble City Pops,... floating frozen confections"") to all that's needed to enjoy ""Jabba's Movie Marathon"" (including a recipe for ""Salacious Crumb Continue reading »

Johanna Hurwitz, Chronicle Books

New York City's Central Park guinea pig PeeWee meets his match and his dreams of starting a family come true in PeeWee & Plush, the third installment in the Park Pals Adventure series by Johanna Continue reading »

Molly Bang, Chronicle Books

A father tells his daughter about her departed mother in Dawn by Molly Bang, an adaptation of the Japanese legend of the Crane Wife set in 19th-century New England. PW s boxed review, when the Continue reading »

Kenneth Grahame, Chronicle Books

Mary Jane Begin illustrates the classic story of Mole, Badger, Rat and Toad, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Each chapter opens with a vignette and includes a full-page painting of a Continue reading »

Lesa Cline-Ransome, James Ransome, Chronicle Books

Children count to 10 and back in Quilt Counting by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illus. by James E. Ransome. This follow-up to Quilt Alphabet celebrates the ways in which a quilt (""a legacy handcrafted"") Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Caterpillar

An inspired addition to the Nesting Blocks line, Big Trucks and Diggers Nesting Blocks by Caterpillar will thrill budding builders. Ten rugged cardboard blocks each feature a numbered Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lisa Lebowitz Cader, Lisa Lebowitz

A trio of interactive offerings encourages youngster's participation. Royal headdress empowers common kids-plus readers-in When I Wear My Tiara and When I Wear My Crown, both by Lisa Lebowitz Continue reading »

Mark Frauenfelder, Chronicle Books

Kids looking for something fun to do will find plenty of ideas in an assortment of hands-on volumes. With crisp, retro comic illustrations, Mad Professor: Concoct Extremely Weird Science Projects Continue reading »

John Burningham, Chronicle Books

""Would you rather... your dad did a dance at school or your mom made a fuss in a cafe?"" Burningham poses this and many more questions for which ""humorous (and thought-provoking) vignettes Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Yves Got

Yves Got's Sam series continues with the oversize paper-overboard lift-the-flap book Where's Sam? Here, Sam plays a dual game of dress-up and hide-and-seek. For ""Who is hiding behind the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nickelodeon

Just in time for summer family road trips, two sets of cards aim to keep kids occupied in the back seat: Let's Go! A Nick Jr. Travel Deck and Hit the Road! A Nickelodeon Travel Deck. In the first Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Tina L. Seelig

The Games for Your Brain series adds two titles: Bug Cards by Tina Seelig and Dinosaur Cards by Seelig, illus. by Robert Walters. Combining learning and fun, each box of cards contains information Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Richard Diebenkorn, Barnaby Conrad III

This chapbook of uncollected figurative images by West Coast artist Richard Diebenkorn, known mostly for his abstractions, brings together a body of work that precedes his most famous Ocean Park Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Reproductions of early-20th-century ephemera and children's book art grace 'Tis the Season: A Classic Illustrated Christmas Treasury, compiled by Cooper Edens. Included are lyrics to ""Silent Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

A companion to Homemade Halloween, the stylish, small-format Homemade Christmas: Creative Crafts for Santa's Elves comes with sparkly and decorative paper, stickers and stencils. Instructions are Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Michael Hague

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without gift books, and a variety of impressive-looking new treatments of family classics aims to fill that niche. Michael Hague's many fans will embrace his Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Christine Malloy, Malloy

Created in association with the American Museum of Natural History, two Flip Out and Learn books by Christine Corning Malloy, illus. by Aaron Leighton, introduce science and nature topics tucked Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Christine Malloy, Christine Corning Malloy

Created in association with the American Museum of Natural History, two Flip Out and Learn books by Christine Corning Malloy, illus. by Aaron Leighton, introduce science and nature topics tucked Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Spike &. Jeff

Kids can harness ""the mysterious power of the wind"" with Spike and Jeff's Sailcar Kit. The smartly written guidebook, Sailcars Ahoy, gives step-by-step instructions for using the enclosed Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nickelodeon

Just in time for summer family road trips, two sets of cards aim to keep kids occupied in the back seat: Let's Go! A Nick Jr. Travel Deck and Hit the Road! A Nickelodeon Travel Deck. In the first Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

With 68 7 1/2"" x 11"" b&w engravings that include helicopters, parking lots, shwarma stands, strip malls, chain-link fences, concrete stairs and skyscrapers, Dante's Inferno is brought into the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Typeface demo sheets, eye charts and logos come together to create a lush, idiosyncratic catalogue of visual ephemera as chosen by Rothenstein, a designer, and Gooding, an art critic and curator. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Matt Maranian

Beneath the wacky, kitschy veneer of designer, vintage-clothes hawker and style writer Maranian's latest book (he also authored Pad, a book about funky interior design), lies the heart of a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Richard Diebenkorn, Barnaby Conrad III

This chapbook of uncollected figurative images by West Coast artist Richard Diebenkorn, known mostly for his abstractions, brings together a body of work that precedes his most famous Ocean Park Continue reading »

Sara Deseran, Chronicle Books

Cheerful and appealingly sized (just small enough that it could actually be taken on a picnic), this book by Deseran (Asian Vegetables) contains more than 45 recipes for picnic fare that go far Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lydia Guibert Ferrara, Lidia Guibert Ferrara

Imagine 129 full-page color plates of some of the most languid women ever painted in the West, one after another, and you'll have some idea of the cumulative effect of this book. It lacks a subtitle Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Betty Rosbottom

When the temperature climbs and it's time to fire up the backyard grill again, culinary author Rosbottom's hefty cookbook will give grillers a treasure-trove of recipes, combining old favorites with Continue reading »

Joshua Piven, Chronicle Books, David Borgenicht

The unstoppable Piven and Borgenicht are at it again, producing another in the seemingly endless series of ""Worst-Case Scenario"" books. This time, the authors turn their attention to the Continue reading »

Tony Nourmand, Chronicle Books

Campy, sexy and legendary in their own right, the James Bond movie posters in this whopper of a compilation feature every movie from 1962's Dr. No to 1999's The World Is Not Enough. All the usual Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mark Johnstone, Leslie Aboud Holzman

San Francisco might be better known for being part of the alternative-lifestyle vanguard than for being a ""hotbed"" of creative accomplishment, but this well-intentioned volume makes a case for the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Tori Ritchie

From ""Warm Finger Foods"" to ""Something Sweet,"" Ritchie, the host of Food Network's Ultimate Kitchens, makes harmonizing a diversity of small dishes seem like small potatoes. With sumptuous photos Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Diane Dorrans Saeks

Architecturally, San Francisco style encompasses elements ranging from Victorian to modernist. Aesthetically, it varies, yet some driving forces persist; namely, ""personal style, individuality and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nelson K. Cabra, Katherine E. Nelson

Top designers enjoy celebrity status in Scandinavian culture, and no wonder--their creations have invaded almost every living space within reach of an IKEA. But the region's old emphasis on plain Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Christopher Rouser, Victoria Traig

In a book that could make even the most daring foodies cringe, Rouser and Traig (co-author of Judaikitsch) provide more than 50 recipes for readers who wish to craft a meal out of items from the Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

As a bus progresses on its route to the garage, where it will park for the night, various travelersactors, commuters, familieshop off at their stops. When a number of riders is named (for example, 10 Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sally Miles

When Alfi wakes up in the middle of the night, he wonders out loud where the Dark goes when the lights are turned on. The Dark hears Alfi's question and agrees to answer him, but only after the boy Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Alan Hess

The rhythmic and kinetic Googie style, a name prompted by John Lautner's 1949 design for Googie's restaurant in Los Angeles, evolved from the '30s Streamline Moderne. With wit and verve, Hess traces Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Naomi Kojima

Humble Andre has always aspired to be a great chef, but he is unprepared for what results when the Emperor presents him with the tallest chef's hat imaginable. He impulsively vows that the hat will Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Rosemary E. Scott, Percival David Foundation Of Chinese Art

Smitten by the riches of the Imperial Collection, connoisseur Sir Percival David (1892-1964) braved the ``insuperable obstacles'' posed by rival Chinese collectors--and the chicaneries of the Chinese Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Carrol J. Lorant, Terry Lorant

This is a lavishly illustrated history and celebration of the Pickle Family Circus, a cooperative circus that has toured on the West Coast since 1976 and was founded by members of the San Francisco Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Michael J. Krieger

Sensitive reportage and keen photography are effective complements in this charming and informative sea travelogue. Through these pages, readers will visit rustic cargo vessels in remote portsfrom Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Nash

This collection of photographs of works by Nash, a wood sculptor who has lived and worked in Wales for the past 20 years, shows the varied ways in which the artist creates forms from wood while Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Norah Titley

This pretty picture book only flirts with garden history. Despite the caveat, it's a pleasant and valuable survey of gardens in Asian art. Titley, former curator of Turkish and Persian manuscripts in Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Richard Marshall

Marshall doesn't quite live up to his wish ""to convey a sense of the quality and diversity of contemporary art being done in New York City.'' Most of the 50 artists represented here, including Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Annette Carlozzi

Using the same format as 50 New York Artists (Paperback Forecasts, Sept. 26), this title suffers in a similar way by according an equal amount of space to photographs of the artists as to their work. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Ron Strickland

Strickland (Going the Distance: The Pacific Northwest Trail interviewed 39 Vermonters who talk about themselves and the way things used to be (and in some parts of the state still are). Agnes Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jennie Low

Born in Hong Kong, Low now teaches cooking in the United States and offers here a personal, ""homestyle'' approach that nonetheless gives the basics of Chinese techniques. Dumplings and shrimp toast, Continue reading »

Julia della Croce, Chronicle Books

Informal history, musings, recipes and gsplendid artwork render this volume entertaining for armchair cooks as well as useful in the kitchen. Readers can browse leisurely through accounts of Continue reading »

Peter Steinhart, Chronicle Books, Tupper Ansel Blake

Near Greys Harbor, Wash., 350,000 shorebirds alight and feed on eight acres of mud flats; they are among millions that follow a migration routethe Pacific Flywayfrom the western Arctic to Costa Rica. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lisa Law

In 1965, 22-year-old Law was living in a Los Angeles mansion where Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and various musicians subletted suites. Joining this casual music scene, she took intimate snapshots of such Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Leonard Koren

Koren, an architect and author of New Fashion Japan, divides his time between San Francisco and Tokyo. The Japanese, he proclaims, are ``the world's retailers par excellence,'' ferociously Continue reading »

James McNair, Chronicle Books

Those who have mastered the essentials of cooking, welcome challenges and relish so-called ``upscale cuisine'' will revel in this lavishly illustrated volume by the author of Cold Pasta. Every recipe Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nancy Boas

This oversize, attractive study examines the lives and oeuvres of six plein-air painters who worked in northern California early in this century and who called themselves the Society of Six or the Continue reading »

Kathryn Kleinman, Chronicle Books

A little book in a large format, this collects bits of folklore, information, and inspiration about flowers, as well as many full-color photographs of flower arrangements. It is organized loosely by Continue reading »

Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Chronicle Books, Ruthanne Lum McCune

The experience of the Chinese in America offers compelling analogies for U.S. immigrants of all backgrounds. Born in San Francisco's Chinatown, the author of Thousand Pieces of Gold notes the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Scott Bruce

Baby-boomers with nostalgia for their childhoods and trivia buffs might enjoy this detailed account of kiddie lunch boxes that is thoroughly illustrated with more than 100 color photographs. In his Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Inga Moore

Nico, a boy, sets off to market to sell his Nan's 50 red, handmade nightcaps. Tired, he falls asleep on the forest floor. A band of mischievous and pesky monkeys steals his caps. Nico is at a loss to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Colin West

``I brought my love a tabby cat, / A tabby cat, a tabby cat, / My love made him a velvet hat / To wear when we were wed.'' Thus begins West's whimsical, enchanting story about a woman who gives her Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Barnaby Conrad

Few drinks conjure the cultural associations and charged atmospheres that absinthe does, even now, some 70 years after its ban in Europe and the U.S. Freelance writer Conrad sees absinthe ``as a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Robert Lambert

``My complaint against traditional American desserts is that, while they often look tasty in their kitsch bliss of squiggly icing and mile-high meringue, they rarely deliver,'' proclaims pastry chef Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lena Lencek, Bosker G. Lencek

As this extensive pictorial history vividly chronicles, swimsuits have gauged the ``public undressing of America'' for over a century. More than a fashion statement or a seaworthy garment, the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa

The American editor of Kurokawa's striking picture book--first published in Japan--says, ``Imagine living, breathing, noisy animals rather than the quiet, dusty skeletons you see in museums.'' Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Martha Drexler Lynn, Los Angeles County Museum Of Art

Highlighting a portion of the 20th-century ceramics collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this handsome book showcases both the functional and sculptural aspects of the clay medium, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Ulf Nilsson, Eriksson E. Nilsson

In the first of these two additions to the Little Bunny series, the title character and Big Brother Rabbit go to the beach. She is blissful in the water--floating, playing and ignoring Big Brother, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Rosa Mashiter

Crumpets, brown bread ice-cream and Northumberland ``Singin' Hinny'' are among the morsels proposed for an English tea in this decorous midget of a book (4 5). But recipes, charmingly illustrated, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Books Inc Marquand, Harold B. Nelson

This appealing but brief illustrated survey of American paintings of the sea by Nelson, director of the Long Beach (Calif.) Museum of Art, opens with work that depicts human mastery of nature, and Continue reading »

James McNair, Chronicle Books

While some decry the consumption of red meat as a vice practiced by people with no concern for their physical well-being, health-conscious carnivores will appreciate McNair's (Chicken) book, if with Continue reading »

James McNair, Chronicle Books

Anyone whose vegetable patch has become overrun by squash must seek new ways to cook and eat the bounty, and McNair provides valuable guidance in selecting, handling and cooking squash's many Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Carleton Emmons Watkins

``If this business don't give us a living we will go and squat on some government land and raise spuds.'' This forlorn statement by Watkins (1829-1916), a pioneering photographer who began his career Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

A winsome calf provides the backdrop--literally--for this charming story. With each turn of the page, the young animal is imaginatively transformed to reflect some activity of the four seasons: snow Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Geoffrey Clifford, John Balaban

Clifford, who served as a combat helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, revisited the country for extended periods after 1985, accompanied by Vietnamese guide/interpreter Nguyen Duc Quang. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Rafael Sabatini

Delightfully courtly, flowery but not dated, Sabatini's period romances--Scaramouche unfolds over the years leading up to the French Revolution--were deservedly popular when originally published, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sabine Lohf

With colder weather around the corner, parents will soon be scrambling for constructive projects to occupy house-bound children. This pair of inventive craft books from Germany are a welcome addition Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Displaying California's ``vast geographic diversity, and the variety of ways in which its writers and artists responded to the challenge of its landscape,'' this anthology--a travel book as much as a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Barnaby Conrad

``With Hemingway, if you didn't like Spain there wasn't much else he wanted to talk to you about,'' writes Conrad ( Matador ), and though it is undoubtedly odd to tell of Hemingway's fascination with Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Oliver Herford

The illustrator of Ten Little Rabbits introduces many more of her fetching bunnies in this spirited revival of Herford's turn-of-the-century poem. When a medieval bunny king ``Announced one day he Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

In this ode to everyday activities and things, a free-spirited girl hops, jumps and kicks her way across the countryside, paying homage to her friends along the way. Like a satellite launched into Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Alistair Graham, A. D. Graham

Originally published in 1973 and long out of print, this is Graham's account of his expedition to Lake Rudolf in Kenya to study the remaining Nile crocodile population there. The author, a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Daniel J. Cox, VanDiver

Freelance photographer Cox tracks black bears, from meadows to creek beds and tree tops. His book of documentary photographs, which his publishers claim is the first to concentrate on this species in Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kamante

This book tells of the friendship between Isak Dinesen and Kamante, who served as the writer's majordomo during her years in Kenya. Kamante's narratives, translated from Swahili by his sons, are Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Graham Percy

Personable pachyderms populate this collection of 18 traditional nursery rhymes. Percy puts a mischievous spin on old favorites as he gives Miss Muffet, Little Boy Blue and Jack Sprat trunks, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Rascal Bogaerts, Rascal

Move aside, Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin: this unusually refreshing picture book boasts one of the most endearing canines ever seen outside of a dogfood commercial. A text that exudes immediacy and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Aung Aung Taik

Taik left Burma in 1972, but luckily has brought a knowledge of its spiced yet subtle cuisine to a new home in America, and now shares it. Like the multiethnic Burmese themselves, Burmese food Continue reading »

James McNair, Chronicle Books

McNair ( Cold Pasta ) and food photographer Brabant here join forces once again to produce a book as seductive in its photographs as in its recipes. They treat pasta with heartening practicality. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jane Perkins, Raghu Rai

This collection of large, vibrant photographs of Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India, effectively promotes awareness of their plight. In the introduction, the Dalai Lama asserts Tibet's rightful Continue reading »

Gary Soto, Chronicle Books

The first half of this wry, meditative collection brings us through Soto's boyhood and teenage years and his tentatively evolving spiritual and sensual awareness. There is the usual kid's stuff Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

The round-faced children in this inviting, large-format volume are busy indeed--demonstrating just about every action word known to children. In a style suggestive of Richard Scarry, each word is Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Dorothy Spencer

A Frank Lloyd Wright dining table, a Michael Graves post-modern tea kettle and an Eero Saarinen organic chair might strike the casual browser as curiosities. Yet these architects, along with many Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Anne Hardy

This latest entry in the Little Books cooking series offers 30 recipes meant to showcase the ``bounty of exotic and delectable foods found nowhere else in North America.'' Yet British-born Floridian Continue reading »

Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books

A bevy of bright faces comprises this small, interactive board book, the first in the Peek-A-Boo series. Sturdy, highly glossed pages showcase the cheerful visages of various animals, humans or toys Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Robert D. San Souci

Best known for his illustrations of such classics as Treasure Island and Robin Hood , N. C. Wyeth also had a successful career as a muralist. In the '40s he created a series of murals for New York's Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Thor Heyerdahl, Christopher Ralling

In late 1936 explorer Heyerdahl set out from Norway for an island in the South Seas called Fatu Hiva. Eschewing the complications and corruptions of the civilized world, Heyerdahl planned to immerse Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Bonnie J. Miller

Freelance writer Miller introduces 30 contemporary artists in a volume that suggests the versatility of glass and engenders curiosity about glassworkers' techniques. She describes the glass artists' Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Linda Bourke

In an inventive variation on the alphabet book, each page offers a puzzle with words that are homophones or homonyms. Once the trick is learned, the rest is easy, though it's fun to go back and Continue reading »

Woodleigh Marx Hubbard, Chronicle Books

In this follow-up to C Is for Curious: An ABC of Feelings , readers are introduced to numbers and actions. Each spread of this unique concept book features a designated number of creatures performing Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Matthew Long

The illustrator of Ten Little Rabbits and Fire Race collaborates with her husband and son for a lively look at 11 endangered or threatened species. Playfully introducing each creature, she presents Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Evelyn Gallardo

As orangutans slip into further endangerment due to poaching (mothers are shot in order that babies may be taken as pets) and destruction of their habitat, books such as this may inspire a backdraft Continue reading »

Katherine Lee Bates, Chronicle Books

Yoked together like a pair of contrary mules, Bates's 19th-century patriotic poem and Thiebaud's 20th-century irony-tinged art tug in opposite directions. At first, Thiebaud's bold, representational Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Living Earth Foundation

Some 225 images shot by international photographers are accompanied by essays from scientists and others in a consciousness-raising book about rain forests worldwide. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Linda Martin

Combining the ever-popular dinosaur motif with a lesson on etiquette, debut author Martin imagines several of the prehistoric lizards in a contemporary human setting. Here, a suburban dino family Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Colette Hellings

Brussels natives Hellings and Maes, a married couple making their picture-book debut, stress tolerance in this good-natured story of two oddball mice. Mini-mouse Edith--whose polka-dot skirt indeed Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Malcolm Bird

This imaginative story of a classroom full of elementary-age monsters contains just the right amount of ghoulish humor--enough to mildly gross out its audience, but not enough to frighten. After Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marvin Liebman

In this uneven autobiography, leading conservative activist Liebman chronicles the closeted homosexual life that he lived while pursuing his very public career. In 1990, after 40 years at the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Betty Jung

This small vegetarian gathering was inspired during Jung's two-week course of meditation at the Kopan monastery near Kathmandu, Nepal; a portion of the proceeds from her book will return to its Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sue Style

Beekeepers, cooks and honey-lovers will cherish this charming, attractively designed volume. Style ( A Taste of Switzerland ), a cooking teacher and cookbook author, first learned about bees and Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

A daily newspaper column is an ephemeral thing, but in this collection of 100 columns, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Carroll often manages to be observant, amusing and even poignant. These small Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Sommers, who runs the Illustration Gallery in New York, showing the work of illustrators only, invited more than eighty artists to provide pictorial recipes for this book. Some of the concoctions are Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Allan Temko

With a colloquial voice and ethical sense, Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic Temko has offered careful, wide-ranging observations of Northern California for the past Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

In this gracefully narrated, arrestingly illustrated myth originating from the Karuk people of Northwest California, the animals have no fire to keep them warm. Wise old Coyote devises a plan to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Gwen Aldridge, Bret Wills

This handsome collection of baseball artifacts from 1880 onward is a treat for the baseball aficionado. A focus on equipment explains, for instance, that early gloves ``were not used for catching, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

Only squares won't dig the beatnik slang and improvisational rhymes of this beboppable, unstoppable tale. Sax-playing cat Oobie-do takes the train to San Francisco, where he tries to ``make jazzzzzy Continue reading »

Howard Schatz, Chronicle Books

Printed in rich duotone, Schatz's ( Seeing Red ) new book of photographs of San Francisco's homeless is fairly dripping with nobility. But the mood is brave, heartening, beneficent. Trying to capture Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sigrid Wortmann Weltge

Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and other male leaders of the famous interwar German art school steered women applicants into the weaving workshop because they considered textiles to be ``women's Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Frida Kahlo

In her enigmatic self-portraits, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) depicted herself as an enchanting, exotic yet martyred woman, and these candid letters, written between 1924 and 1948, flesh Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Michael Bender, Meachum

The architect Filippo Brunelleschi and his influence on Renaissance Florence are the twin subjects of this highly specialized pop-up book. Bender's informative text elaborates on aspects of design Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marvin Heiferman

This tiny, quirky volume of original black-and-white photographs illustrating the unpleasant episodes of an average day has its own clever charm, but who would want to relive such irritations as a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Richard E. Albert

In his first children's book, octogenarian Albert uses the appealing story of a lonely man as the framework for an edifying lesson on desert wildlife. Living in a remote adobe house, with only his Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Catherine Brighton

A tepid first-person narrative introduces readers to the Bronte family as elder sister Charlotte recounts days spent on wild Yorkshire moors, ``dear Papa's'' sermons, and the children's growing Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Susan Jonas

Jonas and Nissenson ( The Ubiquitous Pig ) slyly present nostalgia with a subtext--many of their examples of phenomena which are disappearing, or already have disappeared, are gender-related. Each Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Linda Bourke

Linda Bourke puts a decidedly different spin on the counting-book genre with her ingenious Eye Count: A Book of Counting Puzzles. Full-spread illustrations depict objects that are either homophones Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

The author and artist who produced The Eyes of Gray Wolf here poetically and artistically portray a grizzly's birth and coming of age. Borrowing nicknames given to brown bears by native peoples of Continue reading »

Beth Hensperger, Chronicle Books

Nothing can quite compare to the pride of knowing that by carefully adhering to simple procedures and useful tips one can create a flavorful bread from bare essentials. Hensperger ( Bread and Baking Continue reading »

Lee Server, Chronicle Books

Gorgeously illustrated with eye-opening color cover reproductions on almost every page, Server's enthusiastic follow-up to Danger Is My Business is a nostalgic look into the brief but ``rambunctious Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Knowles

The second of this publisher's pair of new novellas (see The Forty Fathom Bank , above), Knowles's disturbing debut explores the strange spell cast by the camera obscura, a room-size camera whose Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Les Galloway

One of the two initial entries in this publisher's series of novellas (see The Secrets of the Camera Obscura , below), this odd yet engaging tale involves a young man afflicted with a ``hopelessness Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Barich

Twelve recipes stock this short but solid cookbook, an appealing digression from standard American grilling, and good company for other specialty grilling guides. The work--which includes an Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marie Meijier, Charlotte Ramel

Budding pastry chefs (and pastry tasters) will easily see their way to a yummy confection by turning the pages of Meijer's clever concoction. Three tiny, toque-wearing cooks serve as guides through Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Judy Zeidler

Seeking out deli food from around the world (and from among her family's ``heirloom'' recipes), but specifically inspired by the Broadway Deli of Los Angeles, of which she is a partner, Zeidler (The Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Lynne McFall

``It happened in my 40th year that I fell into a depression so deep that even the thought of sex could not raise me from it.'' So begins McFall's seductive novel about a severely dysfunctional Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Martin

A poignant, funny tale about the love between a young man and a woman twice his age. Continue reading »

Nick Bantock, Chronicle Books

Bantock's (Griffin & Sabine) light verse is enhanced by his color illustrations in this small, fetching book. As an example, look at his painting of a befanged, richly chestnut-colored dog, muzzle Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

This eminently approachable book gives eloquent testament to the first pair of California condors to return to the wild since 1987, when the threat of extinction prompted conservators to bring the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

This pair's second collaboration-a quieter tale than their spirited Fire Race-focuses on Liplap, a winsome young rabbit who shapes a ``snowbunny'' after the winter's first snowfall. He wishes that Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jim McGugan

Josepha, a generous-hearted immigrant boy in the time of Willa Cather's prairie epics, is leaving school to work the harvest. Seeing him off, a younger friend thinks about ``red-faced Josepha. Past Continue reading »

Georgeanne Brennan, Chronicle Books

Part of the publisher's Garden Style series, this book is indeed stylish, but it's also insubstantial. Brennan (Beautiful Bulbs) offers helpful encouragement to neophyte rose growers but Continue reading »

Alberto Rios, Chronicle Books

The treats of the title are the gingerbread delights that Mexican adults imagine are beloved by their children because the kids laugh at the sight of the chubby cookies lined up on a baker's tray. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Suzie Gilbert

Diffident and lonely after moving to a new town, Pete finds solace on a hilltop where he can gaze up at hawks reeling in the sky. When he happens upon a nearby farmstead, he is met by a gruff, Continue reading »

Joseph Monninger, Chronicle Books

Monninger's touching account of fishing and hiking in the company of his beloved Nellie, an 11-year-old golden retriever whom he suspected of having cancer, is both a fly-fisher's engaging daybook Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Victoria Wise, Lou Seibert Pappas

Mouth-watering color photos enhance the appeal of these 90 recipes, which adapt Mexican cuisine to the vegetarian diet. Wise (American Charcuterie), a former first chef of Chez Panisse, avoids animal Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Heidi Haughy Cusick, Heidi Haughy Dickerson

In the tradition of Jessica Harris's 1989 Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons, Cusick delves into the legacy of African immigrant cooking styles, tracing, for instance, the transformation of fiery rice-based Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

Long before the '60s drug revolution introduced psychedelics to the general public, they were indulged in by writers, artists and visionaries looking for entry into mystical worlds these drugs Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, David Elcome

No, this is not the name of some strange new series hero, but a bird identification book cleverly formatted in a six-ring looseleaf binder sized like a Filofax. Even the four tabbed dividers ape that Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sonia Holleyman

Jammed with such enticements as ""vampire vision glasses"" (to read hidden messages) a cardboard bat mobile, a pair of ""snake earrings"" and a miniature board game with a spinner as well as pop-ups Continue reading »

Carole Bloom, Chronicle Books

Sweet treats in simple shapes-nougats and brittles in coins, balls, squares and logs-form the bulk of the 50 recipes featured by Bloom, a well-known teacher of confectionery arts. Bloom encourages Continue reading »

Georgeanne Brennan, Chronicle Books

Although France does not have a vegetarian tradition per se, Brennan (Potager) gathers 75 recipes that reflect the characteristic French insistence on ``ingredients that are fresh, seasonal, and Continue reading »

David Huddle, Chronicle Books

Timing is everything; bad timing is nothing for jazz legend Edgar DeWeese Carnes and narrator Henry McKernan in Huddle's (Only the Little Bone) disappointingly unjazzy novella, one of the publisher's Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Robin Beeman

Is it an accident or suicide when Sally goes over a cliff north of San Francisco in her sister's borrowed Toyota? It becomes a moot question in Beeman's (A Parallel Life and Other Stories) evocative Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Aggie Max

""There are few people who would want to visit me in my present state,"" writes the pseudonymous narrator Ashby. ""Maybe no one."" Unfortunately, that includes readers who may come expecting to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jacki Passmore

Anyone who cooks for vegetarians and ominovores can sympathize with William Ralph Inge: ""It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Debra Keller

Hints of the Calvin and Hobbes formula crop up in this story, a debut for both author and illustrator. Alex, the protagonist, has a purple dog named Mister. But Mister is no stuffed animal--he's a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Robert D. San Souci

Although well-researched, this version of a popular Hispanic tale is hobbled by inept illustrations and a low-energy text. The plot line is common to many folktales: a magical creature (here, a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Helen Cassidy Page, Helen Cassidy Page

Targeting a wide audience, this comprehensive guide offers strategies for defense against heart disease, which, the authors say, kills almost 500,000 Americans every year. The volume's four-part Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kathleen Alcala

In her first novel, Alcala (author of the story collection Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist) has crafted a fecund fable about the convergence of cultures--Mexican, American and Jewish--along the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jennifer Knapp

Two energetic, shadowy-black canines romp through the pages of this offbeat travelogue from newcomer Knapp. Astro is a pensive pooch who ""ponders blades of grass, half empty food bowls, and Continue reading »

Janet Hazen, Chronicle Books

Stoking the fires with ingredients she advanced in Hot, Hotter, Hottest, Hazen again finds inspiration internationally, although this time without meat. Fat, however, is something to watch here. Continue reading »

Yamuna Devi, Yamuna, Chronicle Books

Award-winning Devi (James Beard Best International Cookbook award for Yamuna's Table, 1992; the IACP Cookbook of the Year award for 1988's Lord Krishna's Cuisine) contributes a volume that takes its Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

With its images of water, sand, boats, architecture, narrow roads, weather and people, this anthology's selections successfully evoke the physical and cultural reality of Cape Cod. John Updike, Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Judith Ross Enderle

Extrapolating from a historical tidbit related to the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Enderle and Tessler (co-authors of Dear Timothy Tibbitts) produce only a bland tale. Their story begins Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Linda West Eckhardt

In The Long Road Leads to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation, Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh illuminates the spiritual benefits afforded by walking mindfully. Encouraging his Continue reading »

Kitty Morse, Chronicle Books

Morse (Come With Me to the Kasbah) does a standout job with this latest entry in the publisher's geographic/ethnic Vegetarian Table books, not because she follows the series formula but because she Continue reading »

Julia della Croce, Chronicle Books

Whether your tomato sauce of choice is raw, cooked, sweet, racy, buttery, velvety, chunky, fruity, complex or simple, Croce (Pasta Classica) makes it clear that certain principles adhere. An ardent Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kathan Brown

Founded by Brown in 1962, Crown Point Press of San Francisco has served as a printmaking workshop for many well-known contemporary painters and sculptors. This informal scrapbook, splicing interviews Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

This brief, attractively produced volume is made up of love letters written by women to women over the past 150 years and dozens of collages by Turner and artist Sheri Tornatore. The letters are Continue reading »

Woodleigh Marx Hubbard, Chronicle Books

Waggish gouache paintings and a playful, cursive typeface rev up Hubbard's (Hip Cat) rendition of the traditional cumulative carol. Four ""calling"" birds squawking to one another on the telephone Continue reading »

David Bouchard, Chronicle Books, Dave Bouchard

In this grand chorus of one-upmanship, 25 wild animals vaunt their unique senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Addressing an anonymous painter, each beast has one poem in which to Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Kirsten Hall

reading the future Modeled on Russian gypsy fortune-telling cards, Madame Boskey's Fortune Telling Kit: A Book and Card Set by Kirsten Hall and Amy Christensen, illus. by Dana Cooper, contains 48 Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Roy Parvin

Life in a small town in the rugged, lush and soaring Trinity Mountains of Northern California is the canvas for these breathtaking short stories. Whether the author is talking about a famous author Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sylvia Long

In her reworking of the classic lullaby, Long intentionally de-emphasizes the materialism of the original, making no promises of such grand gifts as a diamond ring or horse and cart. Rather, this Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Judith Shaw

Make no mistake about it, Shaw is serious about her subject: this may be the only cookbook that begins with an epigraph by Winston Churchill. Spurred by her family's history of heart disease, Shaw Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Peter Malone

Earthly animals gaze up at their constellation equivalents, each star bright with silver foil, in this handsomely illustrated paper-over-board book. Malone's (The Forest Child) still, shadowy gouache Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jennifer Jordan

Just as miniature train sets and toy race tracks invite daydreaming, a suburban diorama inspires this disappointing story's title character. Albert loves his collection of toy cars, and wishes ""that Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Susan E. King

Through words and pictures, artist, writer and printer King melds the stories of two journeys--a trip to Europe in 1989 and the experience of breast cancer, which was diagnosed on her return--hoping Continue reading »

Jacqueline Carey, Chronicle Books, Kathy Osborn

A vivid and arresting jacket, numerous full-page, full-color illustrations and a distinctively spaced text delivered entirely in captioned dialogue, like a play, make this charming book an Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Philippe Corentin

French author/illustrator Corentin suggests that the definition of ""monster"" is all relative, and that monsters may be as afraid of us as we are of them. This volume, which is rather bland despite Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Marlena Spieler

Here is inspiration for vegetarians who favor hearty, satisfying food. Bistro merges well with vegetarian, notes Spieler (Naturally Good; The Art of Mediterranean Vegetarian) because of French Continue reading »

Georgeanne Brennan, Chronicle Books

Just when it seems that Proven al cuisine is almost old-fashioned, Brennan makes it new again. She and her husband bought their home in the fuzzily defined region of Haute Provence in 1970. While Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Jonathan London

A ""horse of sun"" becomes a horse of smoke and later one of music in this simply worded poem about a girl traveling the earth and sky on a sturdy brown stallion. The setting of the fantasy is south Continue reading »

James Hillman, Chronicle Books, Margot McLean

In his bestselling The Soul's Code, Hillman challenged traditional psychology by suggesting that each person has a spiritual path or destiny, distinctly separate from genetics or environment, that is Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sophie Biriotti, Peter Malone

""We're just another army. We all look alike,"" confesses the angel in Allan Gurganus's ""It Had Wings."" But they don't--not in the 31 stories and poems of this quirky, very literate anthology Continue reading »

Matthew Kenney, Chronicle Books

Chef and restaurateur Kenney covers the entire Mediterranean rim, from Spain to Turkey, and then integrates the region's cooking in recipes that are imaginative and yet focused. He says he makes the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Layne Longfellow

The creators of Visual Feast introduce six animals who peek through die-cut windows and lurk behind gate-fold pages in this inventively designed picture book. The volume opens with a spread of a Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Francesca Romina

Scented with garlic and oregano, the traditional Sicilian red sauce, a long-cooked tomato-based staple, gives heat and life to many of the recipes recollected here. Romina, a cooking teacher who Continue reading »

Karin Goodwin, Chronicle Books

At 30, Eleanor May ""Bean"" Shank, the loquaciously cynical narrator of this meandering novel, decides to leave her alcoholic, cheating boyfriend and boring bank job behind. Tucked into her suitcase Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Edward Valfre

Photographer Valfre, who chronicled a cross-country drive in Backseat Buckaroo, takes his camera on another family road trip. Humans aren't alone on the highway, however; a ""flying saucer"" sails Continue reading »

Claire Masurel, Chronicle Books

Wakiyamas (Humphrey the Lost Whale) fresh, distinctive artwork and Masurels (Christmas Is Coming) understated story infuse this toy tale with quiet originality. Whats too big is a boys blue-and-white Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Adam McCauley

Fashionably postmodern art teams up, somewhat problematically, with a sweet text in this debut. If thunder rrrumbled and lightning crack-acked/ If the sky rained down pink lemonade.../.../ I wouldnt Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Charles Simmons

Simmons, a former editor at the New York Times Book Review, made his name as a writer with a series of surreal comic novels, including Powdered Eggs and Wrinkles, but the present book, a Continue reading »

Hiawyn Oram, Chronicle Books

""Dog was a dog and that's what everyone called him. Dog. Just Dog."" So starts Oram's (Badger's Bad Mood) story of a pooch who longs for a ""proper name."" After all, as he complains to Midnight the Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Debra Keller, Shannon McNeill

When Alex's parents refuse to get him a dog, he paints himself a mutt named Mister, never daring to imagine that Mister will come to life and land him in trouble. Ages 3-8. Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sallyann J. Murphey

When Jan Andersen, raised in a lonely, single-parent household, marries into the Metcalfe clan, she is given responsibility, as the ""new mistress,"" for the Metcalfe Family Album, which has Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Susan J. Tweit

In 40 personal essays, naturalist Tweit (Seasons in the Desert) evokes the beauty of the Pacific Coast by describing some of the region's unusual plant and animal species. Species profiles are Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Andre Dehan, Andre Dahan

Dahan's deliciously glib text belies antic illustrations as three little pigs break the rules of a public park in Paris. Their improprieties come to light via Squiggle the piglet's enthusiastic Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Gay Matthaei

A companion to The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle, The Sketchbook of Thomas Blue Eagle by Gay Matthaei and Jewel Grutman, illus. by Adam Cvijanovic, begins in 1885, when Blue Eagle is ""eighteen Continue reading »

Chris Van Dusen, Chronicle Books, Chris Van Dusen

Readers who enjoyed their trip Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee will look forward to A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen. Mr. Magee and his dog Dee are in for another unexpectedly wild Continue reading »

Helen Ward, Chronicle Books

The Moral of the Story... New compilations feature classic rhymes, fables and folklore retold. Illustrator Helen Ward contributes pithy retellings and breathtakingly detailed watercolor-and-ink Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Sylvia Long

In her reworking of the classic lullaby, Long intentionally de-emphasizes the materialism of the original, making no promises of such grand gifts as a diamond ring or horse and cart. Rather, this Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nickelodeon

Youngest Nick Jr. fans can learn colors, numbers and shapes with Colors, Counting, Shapes!: 15 Shaped Books in a Sorting Box! From the ""box,"" ""picture frame,"" and ""quilt"" on the spreads of Continue reading »

Chronicle Books

From folklore to poems and nursery rhymes, these diverse collections offer readers a host of traditional fare. Vintage illustrations add royal magic to Princess Stories: A Classic Illustrated Continue reading »

Chronicle Books, Nickelodeon

Nick Jr. characters abound in a trio of titles, along with gizmos and gimmicks that make them more than your average books. My Chalkboard Book: Write and Draw with Chalk includes four pieces of chalk Continue reading »

Margaret Park Bridges, Chronicle Books, Margaret Park

A smattering of board books introduce concepts and bring storybook favorites to youngest book lovers. In Am I Big or Little? by Margaret Park Bridges, illus. by Tracy Dickray, the title question so Continue reading »

Patricia C. McKissack (et al.)

Although you wouldn’t know it from typical cowboy stories and movies, about a quarter of actual cowhands were African-American, and this is the story of the most famous of them, the champion horse Continue reading »

These spring titles use interactive elements to teach and entertain. Continue reading »

Creative kids can treat themselves with Homemade Halloween: Creative Crafts for Ghosts and Ghouls. The stylish-looking paperback includes recipes for festive food such as cobweb cupcakes, as well Continue reading »

Children will also be challenged by Mensa Brain Bafflers for Kids. The 75 mind-bending puzzles, each printed on a sturdy multi-colored card, come packaged in a reusable box. Sleek graphics add Continue reading »

Presented in a similar format-this time for an older audience-The Diary Deck: About Teens by Teens, illus. by Linda Ketelhut, takes its inspiration from a sampling of writings from The Diary Continue reading »

Favorite characters appear in Nick Jr. ABC Block Books, a set of 26 board books, one for each letter of the alphabet, in an attractive box with cord handles for easy toting. Each chunky book has Continue reading »

Mensa for Kids: 75 Mind Mazes

Chronicle Books, Carlton Books. Chronicle Books, $8.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8118-3556-5

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