Find the great outdoors inside these kids' books

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

The outdoors, from baby blue jays to baseball, figure in four new books for young readers, from preschool to high school. USA TODAY takes a look.

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Like a tamer 'Wild Things'

The Woods, written and illustrated by Paul Hoppe (Chronicle, 36 pp., $16.99, for ages 4-8, * * * out of four): In a gentle variation on Maurice Sendak's classic adventure/nightmare Where the Wild Things Are, the young unnamed narrator of The Woods can't find his favorite stuffed bunny at bedtime. That leads him into the woods, which seem to sprout right in his bedroom. The brave narrator encounters bears, dragons and monsters, although none, it turns out, should scare even the youngest readers. Paul Hoppe's text and watercolors make for comforting bedtime reading.

Finding nature in the city

My Baby Blue Jays, by John Berendt (Viking, 32 pp., $16.99, ages 5-8, * * *): Wildlife adventures can be found anywhere, even in Manhattan. Best-selling author John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) spent a spring photographing one of nature's miracles on his 86th Street balcony, where two blue jays were building a nest. It was soon home to three baby blue jays, which learn to fly the hard way and seem to be unperturbed by their personal photographer. Nature (and Disney movies) can be cruel, but Berendt's blue jays find nothing but blue skies in the big city.

Covering historical bases

First Pitch: How Baseball Began, by John Thorn (Beach Ball Books, 40 pp., $19.99 hardcover, 14.99 paperback, ages 9 and up, * * *): Young baseball fans ready for revisionist history can learn much from John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball, who writes, "Saying Abner Doubleday invented baseball is as ridiculous as saying the moon is made of green cheese." In an illustrated, kid-friendly episodic history, Thorn traces the evolution (rather than creation) of baseball and celebrates unsung pioneers such as Doc Adams, who, in about 1850, invented the idea of shortstops, and Octavius V. Catto, a 19th-century combination of Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr.

Rough seas for this teen

Sharks & Boys, by Kristen Tracy (Hyperion, 264 pp., $16.99, ages 12-18, * * 1/2): At 16, Enid thinks she has problems: Her mom and philandering dad are in couples therapy, and her boyfriend wants a "break," which, she hopes, doesn't mean a "breakup." Driven by suspicion and jealousy, Enid ends up as a stowaway on what was supposed to be an all-boy sailing adventure. A storm turns it into a high school version of Survivor, without the cameras but with a lot more reality. The sitcom-like dialogue becomes deadly serious as Enid learns, "Life is not fair. This world will swallow anyone. Even if you know how to swim."

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