(4) PS Illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed. "Sun comes up.... / Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! / Dusty little / street cleaner / swishes down / the street." A lyrical, onomatopoeic, vaguely rhyming text describes a typical day in the city. The book features great verbal and visual thumbnails ("Man walks his dog--dog walks his man"), but both the verse and the acrylic art occasionally test the line between exuberance and chaos.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Edward Miller. In this inventive alphabet book, each letter stands for a particular vehicle or road sign intended for a driver. Pearson takes her time with each letter, creating unlikely poetry with her descriptions: e.g., a forklift has "long, steel fingers"; a quarry excavator "drop[s] rocks like crumbs." Miller's flat geometric images are inviting.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) PS Mighty Wheels series. Illustrated by Chum McLeod. Though the subject isn't original, this simple introduction to common vehicles (school bus, cherry picker, police car) is accompanied by soft yet realistic illustrations of various trucks for a variation on the photographs more often used. The text tells what each vehicle does in short, kid-friendly prose. A note to parents is included.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin