Mayo and Ayliffe move from one favorite set of vehicles—heavy equipment (Dig, Dig, Digging, p. 574) to the other—the ones that make noise and tear through the streets, sky, and waterways. “Whee-oww! Whee-oww! Pull over, make way!” Children will practically hear the sirens wail as a succession of emergencies brings out appropriate rescue vehicles: a police car for a break-in; a tow truck for a wrecked car; a fire truck, a snowplow, ambulance, lifeboat, helicopter, and more. Ayliffe’s collages depict them all as big, blocky, brightly colored shapes, generally seen in action, then retreating afterwards to their respective garages—“all tucked away, / Ready and waiting for the next 911 call.” There is a bit of disconnection between pictures and text, as according to the often-repeated refrain help is always coming—“It’s on the way!”—but never seems to arrive. Still, like Gail Gibbons’s Emergency! (1994), this sends a message at once exciting and reassuring. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-87614-922-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Casey Jones, the King of the Iron Horse when the railroads ruled the land, gets polished to a hero's gleam in Drummond's rhymed telling of the stormy night he died. It was a hundred years ago that Casey pulled into the station aboard his Illinois 638, there to get the message from the company to point his train south to Memphis. As the train gets fired up to move through the wild, rain-lashed night, Drummond gives readers a vest-pocket history on the importance of the railroad in binding the nation together (and not incidentally in destroying the Native American way of life; be prepared to do some explaining to young readers here). Once out of town, Casey opens her up: "The train was full of people / from all down the line— / mothers and children / all asleep at the time— / and the milk and the mailbags / from all over the state, / and everyone knew they were / running late." Don't stop to quibble that Casey is being reckless by flying through the dark—“Casey Jones, / he'd never been late"—just be thankful that when he finally sees the flagman alerting him to a stalled freight train around the bend, he manages to save everybody aboard, except himself. You can hear the banjos pickin' in the background to Drummond's verse, which keeps the rhythm of the well-known folk song. His line-and-wash artwork is a transporting thing of beauty, mixing pages of multiple vignettes with double-paged spreads. Sometimes the text is handwritten; sometimes it's typed in the clouds. The variety adds to the bustle. An author's note explaining what little is known of the real Casey rounds out the book. "Wooo . . . oooh!" (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 23, 2001
ISBN: 0-374-31175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Historical novelist Ayres uses just 32 words to transport a wrapped gift of enticingly odd shape, and the child who bears it, to Grandma’s house. Most of the action is in Tusa’s characteristic freely drawn, free-spirited pictures anyway, as the child busily uses sticks, a length of rope, and other found materials to convert a cardboard carton into a car, a boat, an airplane, and a subway car in succession, then makes the journey’s final lap on “feet feet feet.” Grandma meets her in the garden, opens the present—a watering can (“Hooray!”)—and cheerily invites her to tea. All smiles and busy play, this outdoorsy alternative or companion for Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Patricia Lee Gauch’s classic Christina Katerina and the Box (1968) celebrates the way children can turn almost anything to ingenious, imaginative use—and will send readers of any age out in search of their own boxes. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7636-1047-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
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