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PRESCHOOL
Emberley, Michael

I Can Make a Train Noise

32 pp. | Holiday/Porter | July, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8234-4496-0 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-8234-5063-3 $11.99
(1) PS Illustrated by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. The action begins on the book's cover, where readers can spot a young child and her family walking down a busy city street, headed into a bustling café. Inside, they encounter even more noise among its preoccupied patrons, whose thought and speech bubbles fill the page with gray clouds, worries, and complaints. The young child looks out at the ­readers, asserting, "I can make a train noise now!" (This sentence and its variants compose the entire text.) Soon she hops off her chair and, through a portal in the book, sweeps her surroundings into new order as the café becomes a car on a speeding train. Across each subsequent spread, the font of the propulsive refrain/mantra ("I can make a train noise, I can make a train noise, I can make a train noise, now!") grows, shrinks, and swerves, offering cues for an engaging read-aloud experience. The train races through an In the Night Kitchen–esque cityscape of tall condiments and kitchen tools, whistles through a tunnel, and emerges into spacious, serene landscapes. As the train finally returns to the city and slows to a stop--"I...can...make...a...train...noooiiissssssse...now!"--and the ­passengers rearrange themselves into the more-familiar café, the former gloom and grayness has been transformed into cheer and community. Lush with colorful and richly detailed illustrations, this ­innovative picture book compels its readers to get on board with the sound, speed, and rhythm of a train powered by a child's imagination.
Reviewer: Grace McKinney | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

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