Truly fine picture books never bore adult readers, no matter how many times their children insist, "More! More!"
A case in point is Anno's Math Games II (G. P. Putnam's Sons: $19.95; 104 pp.) by Mitsumasa Anno, simply one of the best thinkers and artists creating modern-day books for young children. Illustrated in full color, his new collection of math games begins with the story of a Magic Machine and its two busy inventors, Kriss and Kross. When Kriss and Kross put something into a hole on the left of the machine (such as a pair of glasses) then another something (a pair of glasses with eyes) comes out of the opening on the right. By encouraging children to make connections, this story helps stimulate creative thought. Later chapters develop concepts of cause-and-effect, likeness and number systems.
Also employing magic are two exciting new books that treat their subjects--black heritage and old Russia--with simplicity and respect. Phil Mendez's The Black Snowman, illustrated by Carole Byard (Scholastic: $13.95), begins in Africa before the slave ships arrived, as an aged storyteller wraps himself in a multicolored cloth called a \o7 kente\f7 . Its magic makes his mind young, enabling him to remember many stories, which he tells to the Ashanti village children.
This storytelling ritual goes on for years--until the slave ships arrive, destroying village life. The invaders take the villagers to America, where they are sold as slaves, but one of them wears the magic cloth. Thus the \o7 kente\f7 is handed down among the slaves for more than 100 years.
"The Black Snowman" begins in present-day America, with the story of Jacob, a boy who fears that his mother will be unable to afford Christmas presents. Angrily, Jacob equates his family's poverty with their black heritage, and sadly, he despises both his mother and his brother Peewee.
Warm and kind like his mother, Peewee asks Jacob to forget his worries for a while and help build a snowman. Jacob objects: But the snow is dirty, watery and black from the streets. "Then we'll make a black snowman," says the ever-optimistic Peewee. Foraging through a trash can to gather clothes for the snowman, they find the torn and battered \o7 kente\f7 , which comes alive with African mystery, and transforms the snowman.
