LOOK UP HIGH! THINGS THAT FLY

An invitation to fledgling readers to admire various types of flying craft (while practicing their prepositions).

A jet plane “soars across the sky,” a glider “glides behind a plane,” and other flyers from a toy airplane to the International Space Station go above, below, between, and around in big, bright stock photographs as Allenby repeatedly urges readers to “Look up high!” Following a picture of two young Black groundlings running “beside” one another while holding a toy plane (an image that abandons the book’s premise, but so what) and a final view of an adult hoisting a smiling toddler (both are Black) overhead (“How would YOU zoom across the sky?”), a section for caregivers, in smaller type, takes over, with suggestions for simple activities that further explore or embody positional relationships (pretend to be an air traffic control officer and an aircraft, take part in “a preposition version of I Spy”). It’s a quick read but well designed to put wind beneath the wings of children working to get their minds around language and parts of speech. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A short flight, soon past—but with plenty of lift.