In stores today
               Sticks and Scones: By Diane Mott Davidson (Bantam Doubleday Dell; $23.95). It's the 11th adventure for caterer cum sleuth Goldy Schulz and, as usual, she's tripping over dead bodies. This time, murder crops up as she is getting ready to cater an Elizabethan meal at a real castle in Colorado.

        Edge of Victory I: Conquest: By J. Gregory Keyes (Del Ray; $6.99). The newest title in the “Star Wars: The New Jedi Order” series finds the Jedi knights and Jedi academy students threatened by the Yuuzhan Vong. To the rescue? Anakin Solo. Or so he thinks.

Local lit
               The Cross Country Quilters: By Jennifer Chiaverini (Simon & Schuster; $21). The Cincinnati native returns to discuss and sign the latest novel in her best-selling Elm Creek Quilts series. Cross Country begins at a quilting camp, where a group of women pledge to complete a quilt symbolic of their personal goals before they meet again the next year.

        Signing: 7 p.m. Wednesday , Books & Co., 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering (937) 298-6540. Bonus: Quilts by members of the Creative Quilters Guild will be on display.

        It's a Baby's World: Written and illustrated by Amanda Haley (Little, Brown; $12.95; ages 1-3). The Cincinnati illustrator, who has illustrated books by other writers, makes her debut as a picture book writer with this sweet look at the experiences of a baby throughout the day. We follow baby through encounters with toys, meals, a bath and, finally, bedtime. All the while, the book teaches simple words via bright, whimsical color illustrations.

        Mothers & Other Heroes: By Laura Pulfer (Orange Frazer Press; $14.95). The second collection of Ms. Pulfer's Enquirer columns arrives this week. Each column focuses on an “extraordinary” person — some well known, some not.

        • Premiere party 6 p.m. Thursday , Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St., downtown, 621-0717 (free but reservations required).

        • Signing noon Friday , Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 800 Vine St., downtown. (Part of an event honoring winners of the library's Mothers & Other Heroes essay contest.)

        • Signing 1 p.m. Saturday , Barnes & Noble, 895 E. Kemper Road, Springdale, 671-3822.

        Preschool to the Rescue: By Judy Sierra, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand (Gulliver Books/Harcourt; $15; ages 3-6). A menacing mud puddle swallows a series of vehicles in this light-hearted spring entry, written by Ms. Sierra for Ian Hillenbrand, the truck-loving son of the Terrace Park artist.

        After the yellow-eyed puddle slurps, glurps, flurps and plurps cars, vans and trucks an industrious preschool class, outfitted in colorful rain gear, comes to the rescue. Mr. Hillenbrand's mottled watercolor and ink paintings are springlike and full of humorous asides.

        A wonderful surprise half way through and a happy ending will soothe any fear of the gluttonous puddle.

Signings
               Jacqueline Wilson discusses and signs Bad Girls (Delacorte; $15.95) 3:30 p.m. Monday , Books & Co., 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering (937) 298-6540. This timely novel for middle-graders tells how a 10-year-old copes with bullies.

        Adriana Trigiani discusses and signs the new paperback edition of her best-selling novel Big Stone Gap 7 p.m. Monday 4/9, Books & Co., 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering (937) 298-6540. The book tells the story of a small Appalachian town through the eyes of Ave Maria Mulligan, who at age 35 has proclaimed herself a “spinster.”

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