A MENAGERIE OF ANIMAL BOOKS THAT'LL DRIVE KIDS WILD.

Byline: Jane Kurtz Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

What fortuitous combination of things turns a book into a huge popular success? Surprisingly, many of the books on the children's best-seller lists are not startlingly original. In fact, it seems a safe bet that a children's book that hits the real big time is going to be a reworking of a comfortable, comforting story. At the same time, though, editors and authors always are pushing for something new, something unusual. Nowhere is this more true than in books about animals.

If you are Seymour Simon, author of more than 100 books for young readers - more than 80 of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children - you can write a good, basic book like "Sharks" (HarperCollins, 1995; $15.95) that gives a factual overview of your subject. Although sharks, as Simon points out, "have killed fewer people in the United States in the past 100 years than are killed in automobile accidents over a single holiday weekend," people's fear and fascination never seems to end. Every time the reader turns a page of "Sharks," there are new things to learn about shark eyes, shark teeth, shark reproduction and eating habits - accompanied by a gripping, lively photograph.

Everyone has heard of sharks, but "Faces Only a Mother Could Love" by Jennifer Owings Dewey (Boyds Mills, 1996; $14.95) presents unusual animals: a Japanese macaque monkey, a tarsier, a manatee, a hognose snake and 14 others. Big-eyed babies and their mothers stare up from each page, while the text explains about the care and feeding of the animal babies, including a human one.

An amusing and creative approach is taken by Matthew and Thomas Long in "Any Bear Can Wear Glasses" (Chronicle, 1995; $14.95). "Any bear can wear glasses," it begins - showing a sloth bear, sun bear, polar bear and Asian black bear in cool shades - "but there's only one spectacled bear." The text then gives facts about spectacled bears, an endangered species. Each spread follows the same pattern: witty pictures on the left, facts on the right, featuring animals that are endangered or threatened. Sylvia Long's droll illustrations add a lot of humor and imagination.

Another wonderfully creative approach is used in "The Flying Ark" by Carolyn Jackson, illustrated by Graham Bardell (W.H. Freeman, 1995; $13.95). You never may have given much thought to how animals travel "in the belly of a big plane." Gorillas eat jam and honey sandwiches and a few cookies to help them forget their jitters. Dolphins fly "in a kind of hammock made from canvas," with holes for the flippers to stick out. Kangaroos have cages that are padded on top to absorb bumps. Each page also has interesting tidbits about the animals. Did you know that kangaroos lick their armpits when they need to cool down?

All of these animal books are geared for young readers, but I learned a ton from reading them, too. They're fun reading for anyone interested in animals or in unusual approaches to books.