books

Here are some great new children's books by previous winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals:

-- Two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry has just published her first picture book, "Crow Call" (Scholastic, $16.99). Based on a memory from Lowry's childhood, "Crow Call" tells the story of a special day that a young girl named Liz spends with her father, just back from World War II.

It is said that Garth Ennis is the best writer of World War II stories in the comics biz today, and "Battlefields" ($29.99, Dynamite Entertainment) is convincing evidence of that.

Here are some great new children's books by previous winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals:

-- Two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry has just published her first picture book, "Crow Call" (Scholastic, $16.99). Based on a memory from Lowry's childhood, "Crow Call" tells the story of a special day that a young girl named Liz spends with her father, just back from World War II.

It is said that Garth Ennis is the best writer of World War II stories in the comics biz today, and "Battlefields" ($29.99, Dynamite Entertainment) is convincing evidence of that.

She's not much to look at, but she's got loads of character. Most importantly, she's got a magical touch when it comes to attracting young readers.

After years of writing feverishly, Charles Dickens desperately needed a break from his demanding schedule and money to finance a year abroad.

England's best-known author hoped "A Christmas Carol," a tale about ghosts haunting the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, would be his ticket to a yearlong Italian vacation for him, his wife, five children and servants.

"Luna Park" will haunt you.

A graphic novel by best-selling author Kevin Baker ("Dreamland") and artist Daniel Zezelj ("Loveless"), "Luna Park" (Vertigo, $24.99) begins as a noir crime thriller but expands into historical fiction and dreamlike scenarios, stretching through centuries of Russian and New York history.

Bertrand Russell is an unexpected comic book hero, but then, "Logicomix" is full of surprises.

Deborah Heiligman knew it would make a great book: the idea that Charles Darwin's religious wife Emma was terrified that her beloved husband would go to hell for his theory of evolution.

Forget turning lemons into lemonade. I'm beginning to think writer Geoff Johns can turn lemons into fine wine.

Johns has gained a reputation for fixing characters that have become radioactive because various revamps have made their histories too convoluted. He did it with Hawkman, he did it with the 1960s Green Lantern and Flash, and now he's doing it with the Legion of Super-Heroes.