Celebrity News:

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Fancy Nancy, Knuffle Bunny and Pinkalicous, meet Grumpy Bird, Freckleface Strawberry and Library Mouse. Some of the most popular characters of recent years are back on the shelves in sequels, along with some worthy newcomers. If you're looking for last-minute gifts for young children, here's a list of this year's notable picture books.

``Cowboy and Octopus'' by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (Viking). From the author and illustrator of ``The Stinky Cheese Man'' comes a delightfully absurd buddy tale about a paper doll and a comic-book character. The groan-worthy humor is right at kid level, as when the two friends shake hands eight times -- one for each tentacle.

``Every Friday'' by Dan Yaccarino (Holt). A father and son enjoy the ritual of walking to the diner for breakfast once a week, noticing the familiar people and places along the way. A love letter to city living and to the joys of parents and kids doing ordinary things together.

``Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity'' by Mo Willems (Hyperion). In just a few years, Willems has staked out his place as one of the most creative children's book writers around. Now, in a sequel to the bestselling ``Knuffle Bunny,'' Trixie goes to preschool and is horrified to discover that a classmate has an (almost) identical bunny.

``Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy'' by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins). If you have a daughter of a certain age, you know ``Fancy Nancy.'' In this beguiling sequel, Nancy learns that when choosing a dog, glamour isn't everything.

Message Book

``Freckleface Strawberry'' by Julianne Moore, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Bloomsbury). Yes, it's a celebrity book, and it has a capital-M Message (about liking yourself even when other kids tease you). But it's actually smart and funny.

``Grumpy Bird'' by Jeremy Tankard (Scholastic). When your little angel gets out of bed on the wrong side, curl up with Bird, who's too grumpy to eat, play or even fly. Bird and his friends are drawn with thick black outlines that really pop against the psychedelic backgrounds.

``I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean'' by Kevin Sherry (Dial). This first book by a talented new author-illustrator, about a giant squid and his surprise encounter with an even gianter whale, comes with cling-film characters for bathtub play.

``I Miss You Every Day'' by Simms Taback (Viking). Like his Caldecott Medal-winning ``Joseph Had a Little Overcoat,'' this book stars Taback's whimsical, folk-art-influenced style. The rhyming text is about a girl who misses someone (her grandparents? a friend who's moved away? Your child can make up the answer) so much that she jumps into a box and mails herself off for a visit.

Pretty Funny

``Knock, Knock!'' (Dial). Kids love knock-knock jokes because they're so easy to remember and tell -- and they're funny. Fourteen children's-book artists with wildly different styles have each supplied one joke and illustrated it, on the model of last year's ``Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?''

``Library Mouse'' by Daniel Kirk (Abrams). Sam lives in the library -- so it never occurs to him that a mouse can't write a book of his own. Kirk's detailed, brightly colored illustrations make this a volume to pore over with your own small artists.

``Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary'' by Beverly Donofrio, illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Schwartz & Wade/Random House). Mary's family unknowingly shares its big house with a family of mice who use the humans' cast-offs, a la the Borrowers. Mary grows up, goes to college and moves into a house of her own, giving illustrator McClintock (author of last year's phenomenal ``Adele and Simon'') a chance to draw several decades' worth of beautifully observed clothes and furnishings.

Black Is Pink

``Purplicious'' by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann (HarperCollins). It's hard to imagine it happening in real life, but in this sequel to ``Pinkalicious'' all the girls decide that black is the new pink, giving our heroine the blues.

``What Happens on Wednesdays'' by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). This lovely book runs through all the quotidian events of a preschooler's day --waking up, getting a bagel with her dad on the way to school, taking a nap with her mom -- but charges them with the magic of repetition. Like ``Every Friday,'' it's a valentine to the city and the pleasures of everyday life.

``When Dinosaurs Came With Everything'' by Elise Broach, illustrated by David Small (Atheneum). What if, instead of a balloon or stickers, shops started handing out dinosaurs when kids came in doing errands? Not toy dinosaurs -- real dinosaurs. This book will inspire children to flights of fancy.

(Laurie Muchnick is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)