We’ve teamed up with the editors of Publishers Weekly to scour the latest titles, from books for babies to cutting-edge fiction and nonfiction for teens, to help you find that just-right book for your grandchild.

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FOR PRESCHOOLERS

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Baby Face: A Book of Love for Baby
By Cynthia Rylant, illus. by Diane Goode (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman, $16.99; ages 1–5)
Six rhyming poems celebrating universal events in a baby’s first year turn on the “awww” factor, pairing expressions of love with buoyant, energetic watercolors. A slightly oversize square format makes this book an excellent choice for a laptime read.

The Big Book for Little Hands
By Marie-Pascale Cocagne, illus. by Bridget Strevens-Marzo (Tate, distributed by Abrams, $15.95; ages 3-6)
Sturdily produced with a concealed spiral binding, this large (about 10½ x 12½), well-designed book invites readers to finish drawing the engagingly patterned pictures-in-progress. At the same time, friendly short captions reinforce basic educational concepts (“This little zebra loves stripes, even on his clothes and bags!”).

In a Blue Room
By Jim Averbeck, illus. by Tricia Tusa (Harcourt, $16; ages 3–7)
If bedtime books were dances, this would be a pas de deux: prose and pictures partner each other effortlessly as all five senses are evoked, then soothed.

Hogwash
By Arthur Geisert (Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine, $16; ages 4–8)
Somewhere in the Midwest lies a village inhabited by genteel pigs with a flair for civil engineering, their ingenuity documented in many collections of Arthur Geisert’s elaborate hand-colored copperplate etchings. Kids who like machines or technology will love this wordless presentation of the pigs’ gigantic, automated assembly for scrubbing down the town piglets, also known as a hogwash.

Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons
By Agnès Rosentiehl (RAW Jr./Toon Books, $12.95; ages 4–8)
Among the first of a line of early readers presented in comics format, this little marvel of distilled storytelling includes five tiny vignettes that place a spry young girl in familiar situations that give free rein to her curiosity. The gorgeously colored art supplies visual clues to help emerging readers decode the simple words on the page.

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FOR THE ELEMENTARY SET

Don’t Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies
By Shel Silverstein (HarperCollins, $17.99; all ages)
Back in 1964—the same year that his Giving Tree was published—Silverstein’s first poetry collection appeared; it was also his only children’s book to contain full-color art. The 45 poems here tour readers past imaginary creatures, and there’s no question that the intensity of the artist’s watercolor palette adds to the fun: they supply a punch that complements the puckish but simple shapes of Silverstein’s silly beasts.

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day
By Meg Cabot (Scholastic, $15.99; ages 8–12)
Told from the distinctive perspective of a goodhearted, impulsive, morally centered nine-year-old, this sympathetic novel captures the conflicted feelings with which so many seemingly strong kids struggle, and makes them feel not only real but also fun and funny.

Six Innings: A Game in the Life
By James Preller (Feiwel & Friends, $16.95; ages 9–14)
If Judy Blume could write a book about Little League, about its players’ deepest fears and secret dreams, it might come out something like this perceptive group portrait of a team playing a championship game. The outcome is predictable, but the journey is nail-bitingly tense.

The Willoughbys
By Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, $16; ages 9–12)
One of today’s most respected children’s authors concocts a devilish parody with this story about four children who plan to become orphans and their dear parents, who correspondingly scheme to rid themselves of their offspring. Throw in nannies, owners of candy factories, and sesquipedalian narrators, and the Lemony Snicket crowd won’t be the only ones charmed.

The Missing: Found
By Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster, $15.99; ages 8-12)
A tantalizing opener will hook readers on this new series: a plane arrives at the gate of an airport carrying 36 babies and no one else, not even a pilot. Fast-forward 13 years, and two 13-year-old friends start receiving mysterious notes with messages like “You are one of the missing!” The twists and turns do not let up, and the cliffhanger at the end will leave readers clamoring for the next installment.

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FOR TEENS

Blue Like Friday
By Siobhán Parkinson (Roaring Brook Press, $16.95; ages 11-14)
This Irish novel introduces Hal, whose thinking runs on its own idiosyncratic track, mostly because he has synesthesia. He and his best friend, Olivia, pull a mean prank on Hal’s mother’s live-in boyfriend, never guessing that Hal’s mother is one step ahead of them the whole time, with a plan of her own. Parkinson knows how to bring together the comic and the heartbreaking, and her novel is never less than thoroughly entertaining.

How I Saved My Father’s Life (And Ruined Everything Else)
By Ann Hood (Scholastic, $16.99; ages 12 and up)
Rarely has divorce been shown so astutely from a child’s point of view—or so comically. Despite the painful subject matter, the narrative voice of 12-year-old Madeline is exquisitely if unwittingly funny, and at the same time capable of taking measure of the adults in all their complexity.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
By Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt & Company, $16.95; ages 14 and up)
Expert plotting and the deft handling of serious questions about bioethics and the nature of the soul distinguish this taut novel, narrated by a 17-year-old who has awakened from a lengthy coma following a car crash and slowly suspects that her parents have not told her the truth about her recovery.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
By E. Lockhart (Hyperion, $16.99; ages 12 and up)
In an exuberant and mischievous tour de force, Lockhart juggles a number of provocative themes—class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought, friendship and loyalty—and combines the pacing of a mystery with writing that realizes settings and characters, large and small, with an artist’s sure hand.

ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: a year in an american high school
By Elisha Cooper ($17.99, $17.99; ages 12 and up)
This documentary account of an academic year at a magnet school in Chicago focuses primarily on a handful of seniors. Give this to readers who won’t be deterred by the absence of a clear story: its strengths come from the author’s genius for observation and confident refusal to dramatize what he finds.

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