Several new interactive titles offer visual and musical excitement. Rosemary Wells's perennial stars return for a postal adventure in Bunny Mail: A Max & Ruby Lift-the-Flap Book. Readers lift flaps to peer inside each missive. Max's summertime letter to Santa (marked only with tire tread marks, to indicate his desire for a new scooter) instead arrives at Grandma's house (thanks to an enterprising postman). Confused, she sends him back a picture of a tractor. The misunderstanding is finally corrected in this adorable addition to the series. (Viking, $15.99 32p ages 3-up ISBN 0-670-03630-7; Sept.)
The team behind the Gaspard and Lisa series introduces Penelope at School by Anne Gutman, illus. by Georg Hallensleben. This preschool adventure (on heavy-duty cardstock) stars a blue koala. By pulling red tabs, kids can help Penelope hang up her coat, feed the fish and more. (Scholastic/Cartwheel, $12.95 12p ages 3-5 ISBN 0-439-67357-7; Sept.)
Kids can count their way through the rainforest to a Caribbean beat in the paper-over-board Creepy Crawly Calypso by Tony Langham, illus. by Debbie Harter, which comes packaged with an audio CD. Swarms of insects play instruments, bedecked with sunglasses, derby hats and bowties—including a trio of cockroaches on sax and a half dozen army ants "bearing tiny flutes." Explanations of the instruments and the creatures featured, as well as sheet music, serve as a coda to this bouncy primer. (Barefoot, $16.99 32p ages 4-7 ISBN 1-84148-699-X; Sept.)
Little Owl learns to fly in this paper-over-board Soft-to-Touch title by Piers Harper, which joins his Snow Bear and Little Lamb. Here the velvety owlet travels with his mother and fuzzy friends to the top of a tree, an open meadow and a rushing river to practice. Mommy Owl reassures him with a refrain ("You've been very brave, my Little Owl") until he soars on his own. (Scholastic/Cartwheel, $15.95 32p ages 3-5 ISBN 0-439-59703-X; Sept.)
The back cover of the Disney Princess Music Player Storybook holds a plastic music box shaped like a portable CD player and an array of songs from four popular Disney movies (e.g., "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast). Each corresponds to a new tale about Cinderella, Aurora, Belle and Ariel. Visual prompts indicate to readers when to play the songs. (Reader's Digest, $24.99 32p ages 3-up ISBN 0-7944-0444-8; Sept.)
ABC: A Lift-the-Flap Alphabet Book by Francesco Pittau and Bernadette Gervais combines flaps to lift and a two-player game of b-i-n-g-o (the cardstock game boards tuck into the back cover of the paper-over-board book). Each page offers a visual mnemonic for the letter depicted ("D looks like... a slice of apple!"). A large flap conceals each letter-shaped object. (Chronicle/Seuil, $15.95 28p ages 3-6 ISBN 2-02-063948-3; Sept.)
In the paper-over-board Amazing Machines Jigsaw Book by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker, five sturdy cardboard puzzles act as full-page illustrations (one per spread), opposite rhymed text ("Tremendous, chuggy tractors,/ so sturdy and so strong,/ hitching up to farm machines/ and pulling them along"). The completed images printed beneath the puzzle pieces make this a simple starting point for young puzzlers. (Kingfisher, $8.95 10p ages 3-5 ISBN 0-7534-5741-5; Sept.)
A quartet of titles by Airlie Anderson star cartoonish animals that demonstrate the titular concept. In A Very Furry Flap Book, readers can find the four furry residents as they read the paper (Kitten), relax (Dog) and shower (Monkey); Leopard must locate his lost items among his home's polka-dotted appointments in A Very Spotty Flap Book. The other two titles in the series: A Very Patchy Flap Book and A Very Stripy Flap Book. (Tiger Tales, $5.95 each 10p ages 2-4 Furry ISBN 1-58925-701-4; Spotty 1-58925-703-0; Patchy 1-58925-702-2; Stripy 1-58925-704-9; Sept.)
The family dachshund needs a bath in Where's Stretch?: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Karen Pandell, illus. by Jill McElmurry. Thus begins a house-wide search, as Mom, Dad and two bespectacled sisters search behind doors and under a table and bed for their elusive pooch. McElmurry's household seems straight out of the early 20th century, from Mom's bob haircut down to the claw-foot tub and patterned wallpaper. (Candlewick, $9.99 16p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-7636-1594-3; Sept.)
The secrets to The Great Stroller Adventure by Denis Markell, illus. by Melissa Iwai, hide behind full-page flaps in this clever rhyming title. Around town, kids crankily refuse to get in their strollers. But their relatives know better: " 'It's not a stroller,' Grandpa says./ 'See? It's... a rocket ship!' " Readers can uncover the "true" nature of each stroller with the flip of a flap, and soon none of the kids wants to leave his stroller, even to play in the park. (Scholastic/Cartwheel, $9.95 16p ages 6 mos.-3 yrs. ISBN 0-439-54651-6; Sept.)
A friendly purple monster on the cover helps kids learn using wheels and flaps with four titles in the Silly Monsters series by Steve Augarde. In Purple Eyes, kids turn a wheel to find the correct color eyes to correspond with each animal, while related flaps hide like-colored objects. Big Nose, Small Nose hilariously teaches opposites as the rotating wheel swaps noses and tails for different animals: "The dinosaur's tail is heavy, but the rabbit's tail is…" (The answer, "light," hides behind a flap.) Hello, Moon and One Paper Hat teach shapes and numbers, respectively. (Gingham Dog, $5.95 each 8p ages 1-4 Purple ISBN 0-7696-3336-6; Nose 0-7696-3337-4; Moon 0-7696-3338-2; Hat 0-7696-3339-0; Sept.)
