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TRAINSTOP

Name: TRAINSTOP
Author: Barbara Lehman
ISBN: 978-0-618-75640-7

by Barbara Lehman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2008

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A little girl takes a fantastical train trip in this wordless outing from the creator of other such cozily surreal offerings as The Red Book (2004) and Rainstorm (2007). Gray city yields to perfect green countryside, the magical transition signaled by a four-panel sequence that finds the girl looking out the window at the passing city and the black blur of a tunnel and then, looking back in from the outside, her delighted face. A signalman stops the train, and she alights into a landscape inhabited by wee, toy-sized people. Lehman employs the visual language of serial storytelling in masterly fashion, framing her initial panels within the curvature of the train window; as the adventure expands, scenes outside the train appear within square panels or bleed to the edges of the page, allowing the protagonist and her teensy new friends limitless freedom. After rescuing a Lilliputian pilot from a tree, the little girl re-boards the train and heads back to the city—to which comes unexpected color with the gift of a tiny tree, delivered by a familiar toy plane. Comfortably mind-bending. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 7, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-618-75640-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE RED AND THE CAT WHO LOVED CAKE
by Barbara Lehman ; illustrated by Barbara Lehman

- BOOK REVIEW
RED AGAIN
by Barbara Lehman ; illustrated by Barbara Lehman

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PLAN
by Alison Paul ; illustrated by Barbara Lehman

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TINY LITTLE ROCKET

by Richard Collingridge ; illustrated by Richard Collingridge ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2018

A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.

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This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.

Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.

A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 31, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LIONHEART
by Richard Collingridge ; illustrated by Richard Collingridge

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TRASHY TOWN

by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1999

Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches...

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Listeners will quickly take up the percussive chorus—“Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy town! Is the trash truck full yet? NO”—as they follow burly Mr. Gilly, the garbage collector, on his rounds from park to pizza parlor and beyond.

Flinging cans and baskets around with ease, Mr. Gilly dances happily through streetscapes depicted with loud colors and large, blocky shapes; after a climactic visit to the dump, he roars home for a sudsy bath.

Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches Eve Merriam’s Bam Bam Bam (1995), also illustrated by Yaccarino, for sheer verbal and visual volume. (Picture book. 5-7)