(3) K-3 Illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke. A construction worker leads a diverse group of children on a tour of a skyscraper building site. Simple rhyming text introduces each step of the building process, while explanations in smaller font, labeled illustrations, and helpful diagrams provide more detail. O'Rourke's friendly illustrations, done entirely in Adobe Photoshop, cleanly show the development. A final vertical fold-out page displays the finished skyscraper.

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(4) 4-6 STEM Trailblazer Bios series. These volumes give brief, superficial overviews of the lives and accomplishments of "trailblazers" in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. (From McGonigal: "Just before they left for college, they finally beat the game! They treated themselves to frozen yogurt to celebrate.") "Tech Talk" sidebars provide more information. Photos of the subjects (and some awkward stock images) break up the texts. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these STEM Trailblazer Bios titles: Alternate Reality Game Designer Jane McGonigal, iPod and Electronics Visionary Tony Fadell, Astrophysicist and Space Advocate Neil Degrasse Tyson, Google Glass and Robotics Innovator Sebastian Thrun, Flickr Cofounder and Web Community Creator Caterina Fake, and YouTube Founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) 4-6 STEM Trailblazer Bios series. These volumes give brief, superficial overviews of the lives and accomplishments of "trailblazers" in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. (From McGonigal: "Just before they left for college, they finally beat the game! They treated themselves to frozen yogurt to celebrate.") "Tech Talk" sidebars provide more information. Photos of the subjects (and some awkward stock images) break up the texts. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these STEM Trailblazer Bios titles: Alternate Reality Game Designer Jane McGonigal, iPod and Electronics Visionary Tony Fadell, Astrophysicist and Space Advocate Neil Degrasse Tyson, Google Glass and Robotics Innovator Sebastian Thrun, Flickr Cofounder and Web Community Creator Caterina Fake, and YouTube Founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) K-3 Bilingual Stone Arch Readers series. Illustrated by Mike Laughead. Dump Truck wants to play, but his truck friends are working. Monster Three Claws's love of rotten fish gives him bad breath and a social problem. Rico and Robot go camping and scare themselves with stories about Bigfoot. Effectively using simple language, repetition, and inviting illustrations, these bilingual early readers work well in both English and Spanish. Review covers these titles: Camiones amigos / Truck Buddies, Tres garras /Three Claws, and La noche de terror / The Scary Night.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(4) PS Illustrated by Jannie Ho. A boy notices all the roadwork, repairs, and beautification efforts going on out his window as his mother drives them to his grandmother's house. The text's rhymes, while bouncy, are nothing special ("People at work / here and there, / Fixing things up / everywhere"). The motion-filled art, busy but under control, features perpetually smiling characters.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Disappearing Acts series. What looks from afar like a bright rainforest flower might actually be a toco toucan. Suen explains, in simple, sometimes vague text, how the toucan's coloring helps it blend in with fruit- and flower-laden trees. Also touched on are what toucans eat and how their young grow. The glossy photos of vibrant-hued toucans in the trees are the volume's most appealing element. Reading list. Glos, ind.

Reviewer: Betsy Murray

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Paul Carrick. This book tells the story of electricity from power plant to wall outlet. Eye-catching mixed-media illustrations that look three-dimensional are the highlight. The writing is informative, but so much scientific detail is provided that the pages are dense with text; the picture book format may be off-putting to readers old enough to understand the content. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) PS Illustrated by Karen Katz. "We go down / to go uptown / down, down, down / in the subway." This book's art and simple, repetition-filled text convey the various sensations of a subway ride as a girl and her mother go through turnstiles, listen to subway musicians, ride through tunnels, and finally reach their destination. Brightly patterned collage-style illustrations depict a cheerful, ethnically diverse group of commuters.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) PS Illustrated by Elwood H. Smith. Written in concise, catchy verse and illustrated in a retro-cartoon style, this upbeat picture book has a fresh charm and an easy sense of humor. With tools, plans, and cheerful expressions, a man, a woman, and a dog set off to build a house. The humor of the dog's participation is played up by the similar shapes of all three builders--round bodies, long heads, and skinny limbs. Builders big and small will be most satisfied with the results.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2003

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cecco Mariniello. Historic airplanes, such as the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and the Cessna A-37B Dragonfly, soar through the sky at an air show. Each double-page spread contains a watercolor of a plane in flight, as well as a more realistic illustration of the same plane observed from different angles. The brief, lilting text uses powerful verbs to accentuate the planes' animal-like characteristics.

Reviewer: Jim St. Claire

(3) PS Illustrated by Wade Zahares. A simple, rhyming text describes different types of deliveries (newspapers, oil, logs) in a way that's more impressionistic than straightforward. Rich, color-saturated artwork shows detailed scenes that include different vehicles and their routes along serpentine paths. The sophisticated, stylized illustrations invite repeated viewings.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(1) PS Illustrated by Wade Zahares. A child and her mother ride a train from the country to the city in this book that is much more about the journey than the destination. The illustrations jump off the page with intense colors and dynamic design, and the short text underscores the actions and ambiance of each spread. This is a book that understands the simultaneously exciting and hypnotic lure of trains--and of "window music," railroad slang for passing scenery.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 1998