Books: Looking for a last-minute present for your favorite kid? How about a book?

The best kids series:

"Sheep in a Jeep," "Sheep in a Shop" ... OK, if you HAVE to read rhyming books, throw Dr. Seuss out the window (that should generate some email...) and bring in REAL WORDS with REAL SYLLABLES that work in the REAL WORLD. "Sheep in a Jeep" has great simple illustrations that help a kid who's just starting to read figure out what's going out in the text. Or, as a bedtime story, it has a simple rhythm that is short and fun. The different books are predictable, which are fun for younger children, and older kids feel smart as they smack their heads when the dopey sheep do the inevitable.

"Fancy Nancy" ... goofy girl with great head scarves, hats, and yes, a glossary in the back of all those cool words she likes to toss around, such as adorable, brainstorm, and kimono. Written by Jane O'Connor, these books range from picture books to be read to kids, to beginning reading books (with limited vocabulary for early readers).

"Henry and Mudge" - now including Puppy Mudge, for earlier readers, with a more limited vocabulary and fewer words on the page. These books by one of the all-time best children's authors, Cynthia Rylant, work for both boys and girls, and will not give you a headache on the 20th read through.

"Max Cleans Up," "Max and the Chocolate Chicken" (Easter Book), "Max and Ruby's Christmas Book" - This series by Rosemary Wells is more difficult to find, and recently seemed as if it was out of print. I actually went to Amazon.com, and ordered second-hand books for my nephew out of sheer desperation. But more of them seem available now, including "Ruby Bakes a Cake," in which younger brother Max decides that what Grandma's cake really needs is Red Hot Marshmallow Squirters ... which is what he adds to the bottom of the shopping list. The problem is Max's writing looks disconcertingly like hieroglyphics gone horribly askew. Sooo ... the shopping bags are filled with the usual items such as eggs, milk, and butter, but alas, they are marshmallow-squirter-less. Max cannot for the life of him figure out why grocers are so dense.

"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" - These repetitive books should give me a headache, but they don't really. The mouse is forever finding reasons to continue the process - if you give him this, he'll want that. Sort of like that princess you went to school with in New Jersey, only more endearing, but you still have to clean up after him.

"You Wouldn't Want to Be ... " - This nonfiction series is great for the 8-12 set. If you want to be the cool aunt, uncle or, ok, parent, this has titles such as "You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece," or "You Wouldn't Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice" (well, duh!). Put out by Salaria books, they're soft cover, and not terribly expensive. They suck in the nonreader set with great comic book type illustrations, and parents and kids can share the reading.

"Time Warp Trio" books - "Your Mother was a Neanderthal," "Summer Reading is Killing Me," etc., by Jon Sciezska. These pun-filled books for 8- through 12-year-olds, mostly boys, feature a time traveling trio of boys who visit different times and places; the idea is similar in some ways to The Magic Treehouse, but Sciezka has a great sense of humor and really brings a sense of grittiness and reality to his writing. The smelliness of historical places comes through, and the boys are wonderfully politically incorrect at times - as 12-year-old boys are wont to be. The books have also been made into a television series, and have a Web presence. So if you have a kid who's resisting reading, Sciezska is an ex-third grade teacher who knows the deal. He also has a Web site and collection of books called "Guys Read," geared toward getting boys of all ages into books that will rock them.

Andrew Clement books: "Frindle," "No Talking," "School Story," "A Week in the Woods," "The Janitor's Boy." These books bring readers into the elementary school, the cafeteria, the gym ... and sometimes into the woods. When you get to know the people within the stories, they become the kids down the hall, across the street. Eventually, you feel as if you might bump into them downtown. These books are funny, frequently, but introduce moral issues without being heavy handed.

The Shiloh series and the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This Newbery award winning author wrote both of these. The first will work for both boys and girls, from fourth grade up, and is set in the mountains of West Virginia. The first Shiloh book involves a young boy who "liberates" a dog who he perceives as being abused and neglected, but he never consults the owner, a dark, brooding man, or his parents. Strike one and two.

The Alice books track Alice's progress from roughly fourth grade through high school, beginning with titles such as "Alice in Blunderland" to "Almost Alice," featuring Alice on the back of a minibike (mothers, grab your hearts, or your helmets - your call). These are funny, touching books, and again, have converted nonreading girls. Alice has no mom, but a wonderful aunt, father, and annoying but decent brother. Traumas enter her universe, so she has to deal with them, but she has a fairly normal, middle class life - but that's enough to deal with.

Orson Scott Card: "Enders Game." For the older kids, junior high and up. Set in the future, 3,000 years later. We are at war with an alien race called the Buggers. But there are incredibly smart kids who are being trained, selected from around the world, to go to war against these Buggers. Ender is the hero - or is he? Is this moral? Is it right to become a trained killer, in any sense? Or should he be even asking these questions, at this point?

Looking for more? Books in series are usually grouped together at the bookstores. Independently owned bookstores are best for this, and locally, try Nicola's Books at the Westgate Mall for a good selection of children and adolescent books. They're grouped by age, by interest, by author...pretty much everything.

Party on, baby....

Amy Lesemann is the reading specialist and Independent Learning Center teacher at St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School in Ann Arbor. She teaches gifted and remedial reading and math.