ZOE SOPHIA IN NEW YORK

This waggish travelogue, bright in nail-polish colors, deftly combines real and imaginary locales. Nine-year-old Zoe Sophia tells of her apartment building on 86th St., taking the city bus to the Wildendorf School for the Exceptionally Curious and ballet class, while waiting for her great aunt, Dorothy Pomander the writer, to arrive from Venice. Not only is D.P. giving a reading, but she’s on the trail of a lost book. She and Zoe Sophia view the Pink Phoenix scarab at the Met and find phoenix references everywhere, even at the New York Public Library—as well as Lincoln Center, Pearl Paint on Canal Street, then a mysterious Prince Street bookshop called the Phoenix, where Zoe Sophia finds the lost title. The Exotic Travel Diary of Violet Pilfer-Snodges 1863-65 even shows the adventurer wearing the pink scarab. A last look from the top of the Empire State building and D.P. is sure that something magnificent will rise from the Twin Towers site, just like the phoenix. Stray foreign phrases and rich local lore add to the outing’s great charm. (Picture book. 6-10)