SOUNDS

The small 5-inch-square trim and the perennially popular vehicle theme will find an audience for this addition to the Amazing Machines First Concepts series.

It recycles images of machines from the earlier, machine-specific titles in the series to illustrate the concept of sound, while its three companions do likewise to cover Numbers, Colors, and Opposites. Parker's illustration style is reminiscent of Richard Scarry's, with anthropomorphic rabbits, mice, possums, and others driving the trucks, trains, boats, planes, and construction equipment. The book encourages interaction, though some of the noises seem too abstract for the toddler audience. It takes a bit of looking to figure out that the hose being used to wash mud off a backhoe makes the “splish, splash” sound or that “glug, glug” could be the sound of a tanker being filled. Each sound is repeated, which makes sense for “choo, choo” and “beep, beep,” but the plane making a “bump, bump” sound gives one pause. The information presented earlier is repeated on a flapped back page, but it is so slight its repetition seems superfluous. However, it is convenient, since most toddlers won't be begging to reread these books from the beginning.

Serviceable—nothing more.