I'm Fast!

The husband-and-wife team behind I Stink! and I'm Big! return to their vehicular roots as Red, a sports car, challenges a blue train to a race to Chicago. Loaded up with gravel, coils of steel, ice cream bars, and pizza fixings, the train speeds along, exuding cockiness. Reading like a blues refrain, the text chugs along with the gestural friends: "Wheels on the rails, all night long, / Racin' and a-rumblin' the freight train song--/ Chooka chooka chooka chooka." It's a rip-roaring ride for the automotive obsessed. Ages 4-8. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Jan.)

PreS-Gr 2--Another surefire hit from this team about bold and brassy power-driven vehicles. Speed, not brawn, is the operative theme here as a freight train engine ("Chooka chooka chooka chooka") takes on a fancy red sports car's challenge ("VVRROOOOOMMMMMMMM") to race all the way from Sacramento to Chicago. Every inch of the spreads brims with color and energy as the vehicles hurtle cross-country, the train engine narrating the journey in simple, forceful language perfectly matched by expressive, large-font text that zooms and dances across the pages. Despite a full load of freight, desert heat, cows on the tracks, and a blizzard, the train whips past the coupe stopped at a railroad crossing and coasts into the Windy City first. In a sportsmanlike denouement, the roadster takes up the train's practical suggestion to hitch a ride back to Sacramento and is shown happily ensconced on the "auto-rack" car on the back jacket illustration. Clearly labeled names and functions of the many kinds of freight cars are embedded within the narrative, making this title a natural sequel to Donald Crews's classic Freight Train (Greenwillow, 1978). In a world of frequent fliers, this title is certain to pique the interest and imagination of young children as to the everyday workings of freight trains--and it takes them on a highly entertaining ride, too.--Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT

Praise for I'M BIG!:

Looking big is a strategy used often in the wild, and readers will be happy to see it work for this essentially gentle giant, from whom the fanged, clawed, spiked, yet puny bullies turn tail. — The Horn Book