Issue Date: December 14, 2003

Holidays

Gift books for kids

Words can outshine the trendiest computer toy and offer lifelong inspiration. This holiday season, even reluctant readers will connect with these new versions of timeless stories.

Picture books

Leo Lionni's "Little Mice Tales," boxed set (Knopf, $15.95): These four mini-versions of Lionni's classic books are just right for little hands. Each tale celebrates a young mouse following his heart to explore the world and share it with those too timid to be different.

"Peter Rabbit's Christmas Collection" (Penguin, $20): These four tales are a perfect gift for youngsters building a library of their own. For those new to Beatrix Potter, she uses words like "soporific" and "improvident," so readers may want a dictionary handy.

"Raggedy Ann and Andy" and the "Camel With the Wrinkled Knees" by Johnny Gruelle (Simon and Schuster, $19.95): This reissue of the original 1924 story is a remarkable pop-up book engineered by Kees Moerbeek that offers a fresh 3-D spin.

Age 8 and up

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" by Ian Fleming (Random House, $15.95): The only children's book written by the author of the popular James Bond spy series is a sweet story quite different from the 1968 movie adaptation starring Dick Van Dyke. With a hip cover by Brian Selznick.

"The Borrowers" by Mary Norton, 50th Anniversary Gift Edition (Harcourt, $19.95): With Norton's cover illustration and the original British edition's interior line drawings, this tale of little people living under the floorboards on what they "borrow" from "human beans" remains as enchanting as ever.

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 60th Anniversary Gift Edition (Harcourt, $24.95): This timeless meditation on loneliness and love has been reissued with its original illustrations, a slipcase and a satin bookmark.

"Andrew Clements School Days: Four Best-Selling Novels," boxed set (Aladdin Books, $19.95). Search no further for good stories tailor-made for reluctant readers -- especially boys ages 8 to 12.

Age 10 and up

"The Enchanted Forest Chronicles" by Patricia C. Wrede, boxed set (Harcourt, $23.95). Wrede's modern masterpieces are perfect for anyone in search of fun fantasy. Princess Cimorene, the tomboy princess who runs away with a dragon, tweaks conventional fairy tales.

"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" by Kate Douglas Wiggin, 100th Anniversary Edition (Houghton Mifflin, $20). A newly illustrated Rebecca, as outspoken as ever, wins over modern readers as much as the aunts who take her in when her family can't afford to care for her.

Trixie Belden mysteries (Random House, $6.99 each). Out of print for the past 17 years, the adventures of wanna-be detective Trixie, 13, are still as addictive as candy; four originals by Julie Campbell are out now.

Ayesha Court