I'm looking for software-I want to scan in an original cartoon
character and then  use software to create infinite different
poses/movements/mobility etc.to illustrate a childrens book.-ability
to add scanned backgrounds and mix and match also needed.I'm new at
this-can you help?

I think you may want to look at a software called Poser.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=poser&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

There is a site called www.poserworld.com that has lots of models as
well. Other popular software include 3D Studio Max.

Take a look also at open source software on www.sourceforge.net. One
looks promising: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoi/

Hope this helps!

It sounds like you want to create characters that are two dimensional
line art. Starting from a drawing and then scanning it turns the
drawing into raster art which is very difficult to manipulate
digitally while retaining the quality of the line. If you use your
scan and trace it to create vector art in a program like Adobe
Illustrator, then you have a line that you can manipulate and maintain
the crispness of your line. You can even enlarge and reduce the line
with perfect clarity -- the scan will get mushy.

Once you have your cartoon as vector art, then you can use Illustrator
or Flash to change the position of your character, add backgrounds or
other objects easily.