By KAREN MACPHERSON

Scripps Howard News Service

Children's non-fiction has come a long way from the days of stodgily written books created to provide basic facts for school reports. These days, the best non-fiction books for children offer riveting narratives that read as well as any novel.

n As a child, Wangari Maathai reveled in the green fields and trees in her native land of Kenya. After returning to Kenya after spending her college years in America, however, Maathai was shocked to see how development had scarred the Kenyan landscape.

In "Planting the Trees of Kenya" (FSG, $16.95), author-illustrator Claire Nivola demonstrates the difference that one person can make toward major change as she shows how Maathai began a campaign to convince Kenyans to plant trees. (Ages 5-10.)

n President Theodore Roosevelt had herded thousands of cattle across the Dakota Badlands, led the Rough Riders up Kettle Hill in the Spanish-American War and bagged a grizzly bear.

Not even Roosevelt, however, could control his rambunctious daughter Alice. The battle of wills between the two Roosevelts is the subject of a delightful picture-book biography, "What to Do About Alice?" (Scholastic, $16.99. Ages 5-10).´