Freymann’s parade of inventively carved and combined fruits and veggies rolls on, this time demonstrating modes of travel. He starts with feet (actually mushroom stems) of course, and continues through skates and scooters, a wheelchair, skis, automobiles, a fire truck, a passenger train with cucumber cars, boats, planes and finally a carrot/rocket orbiting an unaltered cantaloupe that, just as it is, looks remarkably moonlike. Wheels are slices of jalapeño or radish; a sea of cabbage floats boats made of pea pods, scooped out banana peels and a watermelon steamer. Who won’t smile at the banana airplane, squash blimp or romaine-leaf sail? Accompanied by a bouncy rhyme—“By foot, on wheels, by air or sea, / I hope that soon you’ll visit me!”—these vehicles and their delightfully lifelike passengers will inspire laughter and admiration in equal measure. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-439-11019-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2006
Passenger trains may be disappearing from the American landscape but Collicutt’s resplendent illustrations portray them in all their streamlined glory. He puts trains in scenes resembling old railroad calendar shots, showing them winding through the countryside, or depicting flashy steam engines and diesels pulling away from futuristic cities. The text is basic—“This is a train in the country. This is a train in the city,”—which gives the pictures obvious precedence. Endpapers attach names and countries of origin to the various types, from the Japanese high speed electric train to the Santa Fe Super Chief. Collicutt offers a tribute void of fustiness, a salute that looks too “now” to be nostalgic. (Picture book. 2-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-37493-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
Stiff and stylized in the polished deco-style paintings, Angelo looks like a mannequin as he goes about pumping gas at Lucky's all-night garage, circa 1939. As his shift progresses, Angelo serves a foxy lady biker who outlines her mouth ``with the brightest red lipstick Angelo has ever seen,'' an opera-singing Italian papa and his five children, and a bus full of cranky musicians. A bride and groom in a leaky convertible sit out a sudden storm (``some honeymoon''), and a fashionable drunk in ``top hat and tails as rumpled/as an unmade bed'' mooches a nickel for the candy machine. The jazzy design and bold, shiny artwork command more attention than the story; the string of unrelated incidents will recall old movies and other sources of nostalgia for adults but may not satisfy young children. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-7868-0200-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
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