Amazon.com Amazon.com's Best of 2001 (ISBN 0060286261, Hardcover)

Editors Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly have packed so much top-notch talent into this flabbergastingly funny all-ages comic collection that you'll have a terrible time deciding what to read first. Just as with the previous Little Lit book, Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies, you'll find some of the most hilarious, intelligent, and diverse short comics around inside these pages: Maurice Sendak's omnivorous infant gobbles up everything in sight in "Cereal Baby Keller"; David Sedaris pairs up with Ian Falconer to define true cuteness; "Where's Waldo?" creator Martin Handford searches for old socks; Paul Auster (yes, that Paul Auster) and Jacques de Loustal's offering follows a man who's found he's disappeared; Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon) brings back the beginning of his classic '40s strip, "Barnaby" (a favorite of Duke Ellington and Dorothy Parker, among others); and Spiegelman himself takes on "The Several Selves of Selby Sheldrake." And that's not even the half of it. This downright quirky collection will charm comic fans of all ages--and, no doubt, make fans out of those who weren't already. Even the endpapers are funny, thanks to Kaz of "Underworld." (All ages after 9 or so) --Paul Hughes