LUCKY PENNIES AND HOT CHOCOLATE
by Phyllis Root
illustrated by Carol Diggory Shields
Dutton;ISBN: 0525464506;$13.99;2000

Cheerful watercolor drawings give a cozy, companionable look at the things the narrator and his favorite person, a lively grand-relation, like best to do together.

Suggested for ages 3 - 6
Subjects: Grandchildren | Grandfathers

SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT?
by Judith St. George
illustrated by David Small
Philomel;ISBN: 0399234071;$17.99;2000

Rollicking cartoon caricatures animate this clever collection of quirky tidbits and all-too-human facts about those 41 white males that we have come to know as "President."

Suggested for ages 7 - 10
Subjects: Biography | Caldecott Medal | History | Humor | Presidents

BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE
by Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick;ISBN: 0763607762;$15.99;2000

In this warm, straightforward novel about the redemptive power of friendship and memory, 10-year-old India Opal Buloni adopts a large stray dog whose grinning affability helps her reach out to other people in her new town.

Suggested for ages 8 - 12
Subjects: Dogs | Fathers and Daughters | Fiction | Florida | Friendship | Newbery Honor

LOCKED INSIDE
by Nancy Werlin
Delacorte;ISBN: 0385327005;$15.95;2000

This thoughtful thriller pits two teenage gamers against a dangerous, disturbed kidnapper. Locked in a windowless cellar without spellbook or invisibility cloak, they have only a canvas cot, blanket and seltzer bottle to outsmart their captor.

Suggested for ages 12 - 16
Subjects: Identity | Kidnapping | Mothers and Daughters

SAMMY KEYES AND THE HOTEL THIEF
by Wendelin Van Draanen
narrated by Tara Sands
Live Oak Media;ISBN: 0874996929;$23.95;2000

Redoubtable seventh-grader Samantha Keyes lives illegally in a seniors-only building with her grandmother and has great powers to observe and sleuth as well as to irritate and annoy. Sands, whose characters are executed with delightful stereotyping, reads this over-the-top mystery fare in an equally over-the-top manner.

Suggested for ages 9 - 12
Subjects: Grandmothers | Mystery | Robbers