A routine, juiceless candidate chugging straight for the storage yard.
How modern freight and passenger trains look and go, with flaps to offer inside views.
As exercises in bland generalities go, this French import stays solidly on the rails—pairing labels or colorless comments (“The engine car is the only part of the train with an engine”) to impersonal painted views of toylike trains. These all look inert, whether en route through artificial-looking settings or sitting at platforms amid diverse clots of small human figures, all with smiles and dot eyes, strolling or scurrying past. A spare assortment of flaps and pull tabs open sliding doors, show rows of empty or occupied seats, depict a select gallery of freight-car types, or allow glimpses of wheels, electrical arms, and the engineer in the cab. Aside from a postage-stamp–size image of a “Peruvian mountain train” and the barest nose of a maglev, the trains on view, named or not, are all European (or partly, in the case of the Trans-Siberian Railway).
A routine, juiceless candidate chugging straight for the storage yard. (Informational picture book/novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 979-1-03631-358-5
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A small but choice set of technological marvels for budding trainiacs.
A parade of locomotives, from the sprightly Patentee of 1833 to the next generation of maglev speedsters.
Drawn with Biesty’s customary superfine linework and meticulous attention to detail, the eight spread-filling behemoths here (all shown pulling just one or two passenger cars except for one diesel engine with a longer line of diverse freight carriers) are viewed from high or low angles to accentuate their massive bulk and dramatic lines. All are kitted out with flaps to afford viewers inside glimpses of boilers and engines, passenger accommodations, and control rooms. There are also numerous descriptive labels and smaller images arranged around the featured train in each spread. Though the small passengers and crew all seem to be white, they do effectively convey senses of scale and period. Like other entries in the Inside Story series, heavy paper stock and rounded corners afford at least a certain amount of durability.
A small but choice set of technological marvels for budding trainiacs. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9647-4
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs.
Die-cut flaps offer glimpses inside eight 20th-century fliers, from Louis Bleriot’s 1909 Type XI to the space shuttle.
Biesty’s exactingly detailed painted portraits are the stars of the show—each presenting a type of passenger liner or freight hauler (most of them big and bulky) poised in flight, viewed from slightly above or below. Each also features four or so inconspicuous flaps that lift to reveal neatly drawn seats and storage spaces, internal bracing, fuel tanks, toilets, and other points of interest. Along with very brief accounts of each craft’s career, Graham adds surrounding captions that point out ailerons and cockpits, engines, exhaust ducts, and other physical features. Small human figures, most but not all light-skinned, impart a sense of scale. Where space permits, pertinent spot images of related items of interest—the Wrights’ Flyer, Harriet Quimby, a zeppelin, or other side subject—are tucked in. Only two aircraft covered, the U.S. Boeing 747 and the Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter, are still in common use, so this album may appeal more to fans of aviation’s past than its present or future.
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0281-6
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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