A TRAIN GOES CLICKETY-CLACK

A good picture book on trains can be as pleasurable as witnessing the real thing tear the air and move the earth under your feet. London’s buoyant, this-side-of-simple rhymer falls into that class. Decked out with chunky, saturated-color artwork by Roche, the book explores different types of trains: great, sharking behemoths (“A train could be fast, / like a silvery gleam”) to chugalugs (“Or a train could be slow, / like a lazy stream”), along with the different freights they carry and the varying landscapes they inhabit, from the mysterious trainyards to the open plains. London has fun playing with language—“A train goes jiggly-rumba / on down that long track”—while Roche does a fine job shifting perspectives, keeping things animated, sometimes loopily so. And the trains are always swarming with people, giving readers a distinct sense that trains are far from untouchable, but very real things that they can engage; all they need is a ticket to ride (maybe mom and dad, too). London’s invitation flashes like a signal lantern and rings like a bell. All Aboard! (Picture book. 2-5)