Power Plays

DVD

The Best of She-Ra: Princess of Power
Unrated: 195 mins.
Superhero She-Ra and her motley Great Rebellion crew battle the Evil Horde to save planet Etheria from slavery and destruction. This two-disc set includes She-Ra's feature-length debut, The Secret of the Sword, and five episodes of the syndicated series chosen by fans. The ''Ra'' in She-Ra comes from an ancient Egyptian word for ''God'' (according to one of the writers), which is just one more reason why she's cooler than her redundantly monikered, muscle-bound twin bro, He-Man. The vibrant but solid animation often takes the bite out of such lines as: ''I — a mere woman — have turned your [powers] against you!'' which sassy Adora, She-Ra's princess alter ego, says to a bad guy. Still, this 80's heroine was a pretty picture of female empowerment, and she did it all without shoulder pads. B+
Recommended ages: 5 and up

Flash Gordon: The Complete Series
Unrated
Sure, you care that Flash Gordon — following his genesis in a 1934 comic strip — went on to spawn numerous feature films, TV series, and was the inspiration for a little trilogy by George Lucas, but your spawn probably don't have that historical perspective. To them, the 1979 animated Flash Gordon series — all 24 episodes plus special features are collected in this four-disc set — will just seem like repetitive tales of sci-fi derring-do with mediocre animation. For nostalgia's sake, however, the bonus documentary has some interesting tidbits: Thun the Lion Man and King Vultan of the Hawkmen were banished from Alex Raymond's original comic strip because of concerns that they might support the theory of evolution. C+
Recommended ages: 7 and up

BOOKS

Trains: A Pop-Up Railroad Book
by Robert Crowther
I'm something of a fanatic when it comes to pop-up books — I collect them, as those who read this column know — and I have to say that Trains might be my favorite yet. Kids can not only examine engines (steam, electric, and diesel) and peer inside commuter double-deckers, they can pull a train through a tunnel (after learning all about how tunnels are built, of course) and then race two passenger trains through a pop-up station (a station, I might add, where even the baggage carts can zip across the page). Even adults become children again, oohing and aahing, when this magical book is placed in front of them. A
Recommended ages: 6 and up

The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen
by M.T. Anderson, with illustrations by Kurt Cyrus
The jacket's a funny take on '50s noir novels (it promises ''thugs, restless bears, spirits of the undead, dance number thieves, quintuplets'' and more), and the story is pretty funny too, if not downright side-splitting, at least for the elementary-school set. In fact, kids will probably laugh themselves silly as detectives Lily, Jasper, and Katie — who appeared in Whales on Stilts — catapult through yet another ridiculous adventure. (Let's just say it involves duct tape and lederhosen and leave it at that.) Great literature this is not, but both boys and girls are going to rip right through it. B+
Recommended ages: 8-12

Hippo! No, Rhino!
by Jeff Newman
What happens at the zoo when the rhinoceros gets the wrong sign? Well, there's a lot of confusion, that's what. Tots will giggle at the charmingly illustrated, sparsely worded tale of an annoyed bright-blue rhino who most definitely does not want to be called a hippopotamus. Since most of the action — and there's a lot of action — is conveyed through the pictures, this is a book children can page through happily themselves, without needing someone to read it to them. A

Escape: The Story of the Great Houdini
by Sid Fleischman
I picked up this bio of Houdini and began to read and immediately lost myself in it, not looking up until my phone rang some 45 minutes later: It's that good. I'm willing to bet its terrific writing — packed with photos, many given to Fleischman by Houdini's widow — will hold the interest of young readers, too. A+
Recommended ages: 9 and up

FOR YOUR COLLECTION

The House of Arden
by E. Nesbit
When my young daughters, besotted with Harry Potter, were looking for similar books to read, I immediately turned to the gentle, fantastical, fabulous novels of E. Nesbit. (J.K. Rowling, by the way, has been quoted saying that she loves Nesbit's fiction.) Now the New York Review of Books has republished one of my favorites, The House of Arden — which, simply put, may be the greatest treasure-hunt tale of all time — in a beautiful hardcover edition. Don't miss this one. A
Recommended ages: 8 and up