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Seeing a story's figures come to life adds an element of excitement to reading and heightens the anticipation of turning the page. Parents who remember pop- up books as fragile curiosities, more to be admired than handled, should know that publishers are now making them sturdy enough to withstand the wear and tear of children eager to test moving parts. Even so, a few of the new books require careful handling, and, depending on a child's dexterity, sometimes parental supervision. Hope may spring eternal, but a mistreated pop- up book won't. Here are some of the best new titles. Small Talk By Jan Pienkowski (Price Stern Sloan, $8.95, ages 2 to 4) A nonsensical tale built around the way small talk is altered as it's passed from one animal to another, this story will hold kids' attention: The brightly drawn creatures seem to spring off the page, closing their mouths as the book is opened. A
Worms Wiggle By David Pelham; Illustrations by Michael Foreman (Simon & Schuster, $8.95, ages 2 to 4) Small enough for little hands, this brightly illustrated book will delight young children because it combines the mystery of a lift-the-flap book with three-dimensional figures. The left-hand pages feature pictures of animals; the right-hand pages contain the flaps, under which the animals hide, or in this case, glide, slide, creep, and leap. Amazingly, those movements are mimicked expertly. A
Curious George By H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin, $14.95, ages 2 to 7) They're all here: George the monkey, the man with the yellow hat, the angry firemen, and the balloon man. Thankfully, the charmingly innocent drawings are just as they appeared 50 years ago in the first edition of this popular book. The text is altered only slightly (George, evidently now health-conscious, skips his after-dinner pipe.) While several of the pop-up scenes are effective, a few are difficult to see unless the top of the book is tilted down about 45 degrees. This, like George, is very curious. B
The Wheels on the Bus Adapted and Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (Dutton, $14.95, ages 2 to 7) Kids familiar with the song for which this book is named will enjoy seeing the lyrics brought to life by wheels that go round and round and wipers that go swish, swish, swish. (For those who don't know the song, the words and music are printed on the back cover.) Parents of very young kids might want to give a driver's ed. course of sorts before letting them solo; some of the book's tabs require nimble fingers, and some flaps are easily torn. A-
Fire Fighters By Peter Seymour; Illustrated by Norm Ingersoll (Lodestar/ Dutton, $12.95, ages 4 to 8) Like many pop-up books, this one has plenty of appealing mechanical effects, but it also has a substantive text. Young children who might not understand the writing will be fascinated nonetheless by fire fighters who seem to leap off the page as they aim a nozzle at a building ablaze. Elsewhere in the book, characters slide down poles and jump into safety nets. Older children can read about fire-fighting equipment and can even find out how dalmatians came to be linked with fire stations (it's because dalmatians get along well with horses, the animals that pulled fire wagons). A
