NANA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

In her big apartment on N.Y.C.'s 86th Street, Nana prepares for her party as she does every year, with her daughters and their daughters, Maggie and Brette, coming the night before to help. Nana's rules are firm but sensible—``No jeans. No gum...No fighting and no whining''; ``No presents, except the kind you make yourself.'' Along with licking the cake bowl, helping Nana hang streamers, and looking at family photos, the girls work on their presents, each feeling just a little competitive about the other's talent. But the tidy resolution of their feelings (Maggie writes a book for Nana, and Brette illustrates it) is less significant than the well-realized characters and the intriguing particulars of their traditions. The comfortably old-fashioned household comes entirely to life, especially in Schwartz's illustrations, which are rich with comic insights, decorative detail, and the cousins' abundant high spirits and good humor. What an orderly, likable family. (Picture book. 4-8)