Among our joyful holiday jobs is selecting books for our children. It's tough duty with too many choices. To make it easier, we're giving you capsule reviews of our favorites. We've grouped them into three categories: the best of what's new, top choices from this year's reviews and special holiday books. We've focused on books for ages 3 to 12, figuring you know or will ask your teens what they want. However, if you're still perplexed, consider a gift certificate. There's nothing like a good browse in a bookstore.

NEW FAVORITES

Mouse & Lion, Rand Burkert

Scholastic, $18, 32 pages, ages 3 and up

Since mouse is the hero in Aesop's ageless fable, Burkert puts him first in the title for his splendid retelling. What sets this version apart are stunning illustrations by his mom, Nancy Ekholm Burkert. Her looming baobob tree, hair-by-hair detail of the grass mouse and grand lion fill her dazzling paintings of a region near Botswana.

Balloons Over Broadway, Melissa Sweet

Houghton Mifflin, $17, 40 pages, ages 4 and up

Subtitled "The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade," Sweet's picture book bursts with Tony Sarg's sheer joy in creating all kinds of toys and puppets. His tinkering served him well when Macy's hired him first to create holiday window displays and later balloons for its first Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924. Sweet writes with humor and enthusiasm and charms with colorful, inventive artwork to capture Sarg's amazing story.

Every Thing On It, Shel Silverstein

HarperCollins, $20, 200 pages, ages 5 and up

Families can anticipate hours of giggles when they share the 145 never-before-seen poems and line drawings by the late, great Shel Silverstein. Silly, smart and off the wall, these little works promise big fun for Silverstein's fans and newcomers. Consider the title work: A bald character asks for a hotdog with everything on it. That's what he gets. His bun comes with a stack of household items and a parrot.

It's a Little Book

Lane Smith

Roaring Brook Press, $8, 24 pages, ages 2 and up

Smith's board book version of his hilarious original, "It's a Book," retains his snarky humor about the difference between a print book and an e-book. It's perfect for a toddler, but the original is the classic.

FAVORITES FROM 2011

Of all the books we reviewed this year, these are the ones that have stayed with us:

A Ball for Daisy

Chris Raschka

Schwartz & Wade, $17, 32 pages, ages 3-7

Named by the New York Times as one of the best illustrated books of 2011, this wordless gem by Raschka will have preschoolers jabbering away about what's happening with the little dog and her ball.

Nursery Rhyme Comics

edited by Leonard S. Marcus

First Second, $19, 128 pages, ages 6 and up

Subtitled "50 Timeless Rhymes From 50 Celebrated Cartoonists," this collection will intrigue youngsters who know their nursery rhymes and can enjoy fresh interpretations. It's a keeper.

The Cheshire Cheese Cat, A Dickens of a Tale

Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright

Peachtree, $17, 256 pages, ages 8-12

This delightful tale by Deedy and Wright portrays a tavern mouser who crafts a clever deal with the tavern mice. In exchange for practicing catch-and-release to fool the pub owners, he gets the mice to bring him cheese, his food of preference. Demons and intrigue spice up the lively dialogue in this charmer. It's perfect for reading aloud.

Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick

Scholastic, $30, 608 pages, ages 9 and up

Selznick, a Caldecott winner for "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," stretches his readers even more in his new tale of two parallel characters whose quests dovetail despite living 50 years apart.

Guantanamo Boy

Anna Perera

Albert Whitman, $17, 352 pages, ages 12 and up

An innocent 15-year-old English boy who likes to play war games online is arrested during a family trip to Pakistan. He winds up being held for two years and tortured. It's a grueling portrait of trampled human rights.

Anya's Ghost

Vera Brosgol

First Second, $16, 224 pages, ages 9 and up

Brosgol's emotion-packed graphic novel portrays an insecure adolescent who links up with a girl ghost she mistakes for a friend.

FAVORITES FOR THE HOLIDAY

These are keepsakes that your child will remember and request in holidays to come. One day, they'll share them with their children.

The Money We'll Save

Brock Cole

Farrar Straus Giroux, $17, ages 4-8

When Pa brings home a young turkey to fatten up for Christmas dinner, chaos follows in Cole's picture book tale about a penny-pinching family squeezed into a 19th century New York City tenement. The children feed the bird and dub him Alfred. Despite weeks of upset and neighbor complaints, when Pa says it's time to take the bird to the butcher, the children ask, "What bird?"

"We can't eat Alfred!" one cries. Cole's clever solution will spark calls for many repeat readings.

The Carpenter's Gift

David Rubel

Random House, $20, 48 pages, ages 5-8

Rubel will have everyone talking about the spirit of giving after they read his picture book inspired by the tradition of using wood milled from the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to build a home for a family in need. Beautifully illustrated by Jim LaMarche, the story begins with the wish of a young boy to someday live in a warm house.

Chanukah Lights M

Michael J. Rosen and Robert Sabuda

Candlewick, $35, 16 pages, ages 5 and up

Adults and children will marvel together over this exquisite pop-up book about the Festival of Lights by paper engineering wizard Sabuda and author Rosen.

A Bad Kitty Christmas

Nick Bruel

Roaring Brook Press, $16, 40 pages, ages 4 and up

Bruel adapts the classic Christmas Eve poem form for this silly romp through naughty antics. His well-paced read-aloud tale dashes through the alphabet three times before coming in for a soft landing.

The Night Before Christmas

Jan Brett

Putnam, $20, 32 pages, ages 3 and up

This Christmas classic by C. Clement Moore is beautifully illustrated by Jan Brett. The new deluxe packaging includes a DVD featuring her art with music performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra and the text read by Jim Dale, the award-winning narrator of the Harry Potter series.

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Judy Green can be reached at jgreen@sacbee.com.

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