The creator of This Train (1999), This Plane (2000), and This Boat (2001) will continue to transport new and pre-readers with an array of vehicles at work and play. Between endpapers filled with paintings of identified autos, from the Benz Victoria (1893) to the jet-powered Thrust SSC (1997), Collicutt sandwiches larger generic portraits, each of a different type of car: big, small, powered by gas or solar energy, plowing snow, romping about on the Moon, and so on. With short, large-type captions focusing on contrasts—“This car has a closed top. This car has an open top”—and a rousing final close-up of an old-style racing car barreling past, this has everything but sound effects to please fans of wheeled and winged zoomers. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-39965-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
Pearson takes fledgling readers out for a spin with this alphabet of trucks and traffic signs. Miller illustrates them all, Ambulance to Zamboni, with clean-lined, brightly colored roadscapes well stocked with angular vehicles—themselves stocked with a diverse cast of smiling drivers and passengers. With verbal imagery as bright as the art—“Tt is for Tow Truck. It goes fishing for cars with its giant hook, reeling them up and dragging them off”—plus ranked lines of common signs on the endpapers and several keepsakes available for downloading on Miller’s Web site, this is one ride on which children aren’t going to whine, “Are we there yet?” (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8234-1722-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
It’s Little Toot, all grown up and on steroids. Along the lines of their celebrated I Stink! (2002), the McMullans give another hardworking machine with a face and a blue-collar personality the chance to toot its horn in gruff, tough language: “When big ships get to the harbor, they need ME! ’Cause I’m mighty! And I can nudge, bump, butt, shove, ram, push, and pull ’em in. Here I go.” This red-capped tug’s not all talk, either, as it shows by bringing in a tanker, a container ship, and finally a mammoth liner (“Think this big mama’s got me beat? No way!”) under the square, watchful eyes of previously berthed ships. Then, hull dented, bumpers bent, “all tuggered out,” it heads for the barn at day’s end, already thinking about the next day’s workload. Young swabbies will be delighted by this gander at a tug’s labor and gear, and likely absorb its pride in a job well done. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-009290-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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