VEHICLES

Tactile elements and lots of things that drive, sail, or fly are the selling points in this information-heavy guide to the world of transportation.

An ethnically diverse cast of cartoon characters employ a variety of conveyances whose operation, use, or features are explained in the text. Every page but one includes folding flaps or textured surfaces to engage the hands and imaginations of young readers. The book is fairly sturdy, but the flaps can rip. The dense text is clearly aimed at children who can already name different vehicles and are ready for new vocabulary describing features and functionality: “The vertical stabilizer helps the airplane fly straight,” for example. Some children may lack the focus to sit through all of the text, but there is plenty here to interest those with shorter attention spans, too. Featured vehicles include bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses, subways, trains, trucks, planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, ships, boats, and race cars. Children can lift flaps to look inside the cockpit of a plane and the luggage compartment of a bus, peel back a tarp to view the cargo of a semi, and tug on a firehose at the scene of a fire. Caregivers should be ready to reassure children about the woman in the burning building and a race car that bursts into flames.

Lots to touch and look at and a good vocabulary builder to boot.