One of my most shocking facts in reading to children is watching their preferences. There are most definitely "girl books" and "boy books". It's not about prejudice, but natural selection. Girls are typically drawn to princesses, weddings, and fairies... so here are a list of new books to please them.

Summer brings wedding dreaming to young girls. I still remember my little girl saving her money to buy one of those fat bride magazines. Last September, at 12, she finally had her wish fulfilled, and savored every moment. Two new books will help those chosen, and nurture those who still dream.

Young novice flower girls will benefit from photographs that show them exactly what to expect. Beautiful pictures and a simple story describe the wedding festivities in Wendy Cheyette Lewison's I Am A Flower Girl (Grosset & Dunlap, $2.99; ages 3-5) with photos by Elizabeth Hathon. From engagement to fear of walking down the aisle, we follow little Katie's involvement in every part of the process. Every stage of wedding is described in a way that's great for a preparing a child to be a part of the bridal party, or just attending a first wedding.

There's a fabulous young bridal consultant in Marielle Alison's How to Be a Bride and a Flower Girl, Too (Little Simon, $14.95; ages 4-8)It's the pretending five-year-old Marielle who was an astronaut just a book ago. With a bit of experience from her aunt's wedding, she plans a wedding and explains everything---what one is, who to marry (a cat, dog, stuffed animal will do), and more. She makes the experiences complete with easy-to assemble accessories that come folded in the book. Every page reveals another wedding facet and holds another surprise, like the mock invitation in a tiny envelope. A wonderful way to understand for becoming flower girls and a way to structure the fantasies many little girls like to play out.

Beach reading for your favorite young woman? Four new series for novel lovers will appeal most to girls. Enter the world of fairies in Gail Herman's Fairy School Books. In the newest, Fairy Cloud Parade (Random House, $3.99; ages 7-9), a tiny artistic fairy, Olivia Skye, is preparing for the arrival of a new sibling and designing a cloud for a contest. Not one, but two fairy babies threaten to interfere with her plan to create a prize-winning cloud.

Gail Levine has a new series of short novelized fairy tale retellings for your little princess. Levine won a Newbery Honor for Ella Enchanted which now comes in paperback(HarperTrophy, $5.95) and unabridged audio (Bantam Books Audio, $21.95) . In her most recent, The Fairy's Mistake (HarperCollins, $8.95; ages 7-10), Levine takes the traditional story of the girl gifted with speaking jewels and her sister who speaks vipers and vermin one step further. She continues their stories to show how each coped with the fairy's spells. She also expands the Princess and the Pea in The Princess Test (HarperCollins,$8.95 ). All books are filled with perfect fairy tale language, interesting twists, and a touch of humor.

Alcott's Little Women come to a younger audience with Susan Beth Pfeffer's Portraits of Little Women series. In this series, all Alcott's heroines are ten and each faces the struggles of growing, family, and sisterhood. In A Gift for Meg (Delacorte Press, $9.95; ages 7-10) Great-aunt March brings Meg Belgian lace home from Europe as a gift, and Jo covets the present. In addition to conflicts, each book has activities and recipes that draw from the book. A Gift for Meg has a recipe for scalloped apples and directions to make a lace barrettes.

Linda Keep's Hannah and the Angels series finds sixth-grade Hannah chosen by four angels to go on missions for them all over the world. The locales are great ways to understand the world's excitements, there's plenty of adventure, and difficult interpretations of angel messages provide additional intrigue and suspense in these fast reads. In the newest, Mardi Gras Mix-up (Random House, $3.99; ages 8-12), Hannah's in Trinidad at Carnival where she and the angels help Frankie, a boy in a wheelchair with a giant chip on his shoulder, and problem Hannah helps him sort out.

Parents who seek out a strong female heroines will find one in Andrew Clements' new book, The Landry News (Simon& Schuster, $15.00; ages 9-12). Clements is the author of the best-selling Frindle (Aladdin,$3.99; ages 8-12) which now comes in an unabridged audio from Listening Library ($16.98). In The Landry News, he writes about Cara Landry, who's bitter and anger enough about her parents' divorce, but now must face a new school. Still worse, she's placed in the classroom of a burned out teacher who hides behind his newspaper daily. Cara, a talented writer, engineers a class newspaper, motivates the class and teacher, and winds up in a battle over First Amendment rights!