If tomatoes are talking and cucumbers are capering, it's got to be VeggieTales. Now the popular series extends itself to board books. In Bob Lends a Helping... Hand by Mike Nawrocki, illus. by Cindy Kenney, Bob the tomato works at being "God's superhero" by doing the housework for an injured vegetable. Other lessons in good behavior and good manners are taught in Larry Learns to Listen by Karen Poth; Junior and Laura Share the Year Together by Lisa Vischer and Mary Murray; and Peas and Thank You! by Nawrocki. (Zonderkidz, $4.99 each 12p ages 6 mos.-6 yrs. ISBN 0-310-70538-X; -70539-8; -70541-X; -70540-1; Aug.)
In addition to the titles for the Jewish holidays reviewed above, a treat is in store for readers of all faiths with the reissue of Adèle Geras's My Grandmother's Stories: A Collection of Jewish Folk Tales. The 1990 text is newly re-illustrated with gorgeous, glowing paintings by Anita Lobel. The art, on full pages as well as sprinkled throughout the text, evokes a folkloric Old World, where judicious (if tricky) rabbis restore order, an angel in the guise of a peddler escorts a nagging mother-in-law to a Market of Miseries, and weddings unite not just man to woman but past to present. (Knopf, $19.95 96p ages 6-12 ISBN 0-375-82285-2; Aug.)
