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The world is hardly in need of new alphabet books. The shelves of every children's library sag with them. But Bert Kitchen's Animal Alphabet (Dial; $11.95) should displace a score of bygone manuals. Each member of his wild kingdom is involved with the letter that begins its name: the koala hugs the main stem of the K; two bats hang from the crossbars of the B; an ostrich peers out from the great hole of the O. This is no restatement of the obvious; an elephant may push an E, but what is that long-tailed bird perched atop the Q? What kind of fish are swimming in the water trapped by the upper part of the X? What is that spotted amphibian sliding down the N? Answers: a quetzal; an X-ray fish; a newt.
Paul Creswick's 1902 classic Robin Hood (Scribners; $18.95) is written in 19th century baroque: "You shall pay no more than ten pieces of gold for your entertainment, excellence," decreed Robin. "Speak I soothly, men of the greenwood?" But it is N.C. Wyeth's 1917 illustrations that carry the day. Each of them has the sweep and drama of unabashed romanticism; a score of movies have tumbled from these portraits of Robin, Little John and Maid Marian. And there have been even more literary spinoffs. Surely this is not the last of the retellings; it is merely the best. -By Stefan Kanfer