Tops for Tots

Publishers and children, like the rest of the world, are always in search of the perfect ending. For them, these blends of text and illustration, all published during 1980, seem destined to live happily ever after:

sbThe Unique World of Mitsumasa Anno: Selected Works (1968 to 1977); Philomel Books; $19.95. Visual puns, puzzles, games and tricks by the Escher of Japan.

sbFables by Arnold Lobel; Harper & Row; $8.95. A superstar of the genre continues the work of the fabulous Aesop.

sbGorky Rises by William Steig; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; $10.95. As a frog learns to fly he gives lessons in pure delight.

-Dogs and Dragons, Trees and Dreams by Karla Kuskin; Harper & Row; $8.95. A sparkling poet introduces the astonishments and rewards of reading and writing verse.

sbUnbuilding by David Macaulay; Houghton Mifflin Co.; $9.95. An architect shows how a skyscraper--the Empire State Building--is dismantled floor by floor. Smashing.

sbThe Heavenly Zoo by Alison Lurie; pictures by Monika Beisner; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; $9.95. The story of the constellations, told by a novelist who never looks down at her subject or on her audience.

sbPeter and the Wolf; illustrated by Erna Voigt; David R. Godine; $10. Prokofiev's merry tale sans music but accompanied by glowing comic illustrations.

sbAn Artist by M.B. Goffstein; Harper & Row; $7.95. A sly introduction to art through the life of a little painter who looks very much like Monet.

sbThe Children's Picture Book by Ernest Nister; Delacorte Press; $6.95. Reproduction of an 1896 pop-up book, featuring a cat academy, a duck militia and a three-dimensional supporting cast.

sbA Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas; illustrated by Edward Ardizzone; David R. Godine; $10.95. Two masters re-create a vanished world of Christmas Day in a small Welsh town.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.