Choo Choo Clickety-Clack!

April 4, 2005
After interactively exploring ambulances, police cars and more in Emergency!, Margaret Mayo and artist Alex Ayliffe take on trains, planes, boats and other modes of transport for the paper-over-board Choo Choo Clickety-Clack! Sound effects galore will have youngsters chiming in (bikes go "Zippety-Zip!"; cable cars go "Shlummp! Whurrrr!"). .

May 1, 2005
PreS-K -A book about all the ways for people on the go to get where they're going. Mayo includes race cars, trains, buses, planes, and even hot-air balloons. Each bright spread features a new vehicle and four lines about the sounds it makes and the way it moves. Flat illustrations loaded with primary colors and geometric shapes combined with a text full of "zooms" and "vrooms" beg for sharing aloud. Each verse concludes with a large "Off they go!" leading readers to turn the page and discover a new way to travel. On the last page, darkness falls and many of the vehicles are "resting" but a few will keep traveling until they are "home at last!" A surefire selection in any library where toddlers and preschoolers go "Zippity-zip" or "RoarrrRR!" -"Julie Roach, Watertown Free Public Library, MA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2005
PreS-K. Noise! Movement! Trains, boats, and planes! Little ones love motion, and this book brilliantly captures that rush in raucous words and eye-popping art. Each bold two-page spread begins in a similar fashion: "Airplanes are great at fly, fly, flying . . . race cars are great at race, race, racing," with the print size getting bigger and bolder to reflect movement. Short and snappy, four lines of text encapsulate the excitement that comes with getting in a car, sailing on a lake, or floating in a hot-air balloon. The graphic-style artwork is executed in a melange of pure colors. Yellow, red, orange, green, and blue can all be found on a motorcyclist's outfit; solid patches of hues make up the land below a soaring plane; a pink sky dotted with balls of white seems a perfect background for a family on a ski lift. What fun this will be to read aloud; kids will no doubt be inspired to come up with noises and movements of their own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2005
This large-format picture book introduces a variety of common modes of transportation, from trains to race cars to hot-air balloons. While the text is uninspired ("Buses are great at go, go, going..."), it includes a lot of sound words ("Vroom, vroom!") and the child-friendly, collage-like illustrations convey energy and motion.

(Copyright 2005 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)