You say you figure you’ll be up to your nostrils in millennium stuff in the coming year, so you don’t wanna go there yet? Not a prob. We recommend a strange and colorful book that has nothing to do with the millennium – except that you might be reading it till then. “Very, Very Odd: A Picture Puzzle Adventure” by Geoff Kelley ($8, Allen & Unwin) is way more than a storybook. It’s jammed with crazy, hidden pictures that’ll drive you nuts trying to find. (For starters, there are 11 sets of false teeth, 23 bananas, 13 octopuses …) The story, about Flea and Dog, two dudes who don’t get along but can’t live without each other, might entertain littler kids – but it takes an older kid to handle the challenge of tracking down the book’s hidden weirdness.
