Review by New York Times Review
THE look a toddler gives a truck is pure desire. Across his face - is it wrong to say "him"? - you see the play of genes and time. Something in the cerebral cortex seems to demand access to cement mixers, dump trucks, cranes and, granddaddy of them all, diggers, which would allow him to multiply his own meager, tiny-handed mixing and digging power. It's why we don't let kids operate motorized vehicles: they would kill us all. Chris Gall has a lot of fun with the primal place of machines in the lives of small children in his brilliant book "Dinotrux." In ripe-to-the-point-of-bursting illustrations - there is something of R. Crumb in his pictures; check out the tiny skirts on the cave ladies! - Gall gives us the creation legend of the truck, our modern vehicles being descendants of the combustion-driven monsters that once roamed free. (Anyone who has caught sight of an idle crane on a clear autumn evening will sense a possible inspiration for this book.) "Millions of years ago," Gall begins, "prehistoric trucks roamed the earth. They were huge. They were hungry. But they weren't helpful like they are today. They rumbled, roared and chomped." Gall catalogs the ancestors of all the favorites: the Craneosaurus, pictured with wide-set eyes and jagged teeth, the sky around it alive with pterodactyls; the Dozeratops battling the Dumploducus, like a couple of union crews showing up at the same no-show work site; and, of course, the Tyrannosaurus Trux, "bully of the jungle!" "Dinotrux" imagines the natural history of heavy equipment. How did the era of trucks end? There was a flash and everything withered and died, and the monstrous machines "shed their teeth and their toenails and their misbehaving ways" and thus evolved into the steel slave race of today. With "Dinotrux" in mind, several other recent books about traffic and cars read like iterations of a unified, exotic past, as both the turtle and the sparrow sound like echoes of the dinosaur. Take, for example, "Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep!," which is about a life lived with machines and the cacophony of town, where the exclamation points fall like snow and the horns sing like church bells. Written by Robert Burleigh and illustrated by Beppe Giacobbe, the story follows a boy through a typical day made of sounds so typical you don't notice them - the "ting-a-ling" of the alarm clock, the "grroo-clunk!" of the garbage truck (Garbageadon?). In spare, elegant illustrations, the city is seen on many levels - underground, street and elevated - with the boy moving through a forest no less mysterious than the jungle room of Maurice Sendak. The book ends as it begins, with the boy asleep in his room, the moonlight beaming in, the city waiting only for him to be old enough to step out and carouse. "OK Go," by Carin Berger, picks up where "Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep!" leaves off, straight into dreams of hopped-up vehicles crossing blue skies. Rocket cars, spaceships with bubble tops, beaknosed pilots ghosting over words ("GO! GO! GO!") - it's a vision as giddily surreal as the work of Joan Miró. On the last page you learn that the illustrations, spooky in their clarity, are collages made from recycled materials: found papers, magazines, ticket stubs, old letters and newspapers, which seems right. "The Busiest Street in Town," written by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Sarah McMenemy, is old-fashioned in contrast, with drawings less reminiscent of Miró than of H.A. Rey. Or perhaps the illustrations - simple and bright, they depict women in colorful hats and pearls - are so "now" they seem old, like one of those brand-new baseball parks made to look like something from the Iron Age. "The Busiest Street in Town" is a fable, the story of a grandmotherly woman, Agatha May Walker, who wants to take gingersnap cookies to her friend Eulalie but cannot get across a street swollen with trucks and cars. We see her standing amid exhaust fumes - "Slow Down!" she yells - like King Xerxes telling his men to flog the Hellespont. Agatha then makes the sort of simple gesture said to change the world: she moves her chair into the street and sits there cheerfully as trucks and cars swerve wildly around her. A weirdly dangerous episode for a picture book, but in it I see a hint of the lone citizen standing in the path of the tank. Here, at least, the gesture itself is enough to defeat the machine. The trucks are stilled, the people come out, the cookies are shared and Parcheesi is played. The book reads like the last chapter in the long struggle between man and his machines, a simple act of defiance being enough to end the terrible reign of the Dinotrux. Rich Cohen is the author of "Israel Is Real" and the father of three boys.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 26, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Berger's playful take on going green introduces the simple changes even wee ones can make to lighten the carbon load. Opening two-page spreads show an ever-growing number of quirky creatures zipping along in cars, unaware of the puffs of exhaust left in their wake. As the traffic increases, so does the text's repetition of the word go, until finally it fills an entire spread, and the results of all that going soot-colored clouds that block out the sky are revealed. Thankfully, one little lass has a plan, and gridlock gives way to a flower-filled four-page gatefold of greener alternatives and friendly rhyming imperatives ( Take a hike, Spike, Use it again, Jen ). Berger's collage artwork, made from recycled materials, including magazine images and newspapers, features whimsical details, patterned fabrics, and print that invites close, extended inspection. A closing spread offers even more suggestions for going green as well as recommended books and Web sites.--McKulski, Kristen Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Not to be confused with the rock band of the same name, Berger's (The Little Yellow Leaf) latest is visually and verbally raucous even as its environmental message is (comparatively) subtle. "GO!" shouts the opening text, as peapod-shaped vehicles sputter and race across the page. They are helmed by a diverse cast of collaged birdlike citizens, animals (and even flowers). Buttons, disks and magazine clippings serving as heads, wheels and outlandish apparel. The pages grow increasingly crowded with vehicles as well as with the word "go," creating a frenetic rush-hour vibe. A gray spread of smoggy clouds and a big "Uh-oh!" reveals the price of all the traffic, and a lone figure yells "Stop!" into a megaphone on the following page. The cars "screech!" to a halt, and a final foldout spread reveals green alternatives-dozens of the figures march, bike and skateboard against a sage-green backdrop, along with cheeky environmental suggestions ("Use your feet, Pete," "Conserve, Merve"). The detailed scenes and wackily endearing characters (made from recycled materials, natch) invite poring over. Ages 2-5. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-Berger's simple environmental message is delivered through clever, innovative illustrations that make her point without being didactic. Idiosyncratic creatures decked out in fabric pieces, buttons, and tall imaginative hats sail along in even more idiosyncratic vehicles that are variously colored and decorated with stickers and decals. Sleekly designed with numerous wheels, they are seemingly unaware of the dirt and exhaust trailing behind them. As ever-more-bizarre conveyances fill the scene, the word "GO!" increases until nine rows of "go go go go go" (in stark white letters against a forest green background) march across a full spread. When sullen gray-shaded clouds fill the next page, an ultra-large "UH-OH!" appears. On the following pages, a bystander (against a bright red backdrop) trumpets "STOP," and a page filled with "s-c-r-e-e-c-h" brings the action to a halt, until the characters finally leave their wheels behind and put their feet on the ground. Slogans, studding a four-page gateway, suggest alternative behaviors: "Take a Hike, Spike," "Save the Planet, Janet," "Use Your Feet, Pete," and "Roller-Skate, Kate." While the opening pages may puzzle younger children, the offbeat presentation will undoubtedly initiate interest among older readers, and the fanciful collages (made from recycled materials) will have artistic readers poring over the pages. A classy book that will have multiple uses in a variety of settings.-Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Double-page spreads feature the word go and illustrations of human- and birdlike creatures driving cars. Then a lone citizen yells "STOP!" and admonishes everyone to find another way ("Use your feet, Pete"; "Take a hike, Spike"). The mixed-media illustrations, though chaotic, have verve. Tips for going green conclude this offering. Reading list, websites. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Berger follows the success of New York Times Best Illustrated Little Yellow Leaf (2008) with a book for little tree-huggers. She fittingly uses recycled materials to create her stylized collages, at first depicting a few cars puffing exhaust against a light-blue background emblazoned with the word: "GO!" As she incorporates more cars into successive illustrations, she shifts the background to darker shades of blue and gray, while repeating "GO!" across the double spreads. This visual commentary on the fast pace of contemporary society and the environmental impact of cars and fossil fuels is powerful in its simplicity and accessibility. After screeching to a "STOP!" the text on the four facing pages of the closing double gatefold shifts from spare to perhaps intertextual in nature: Echoes of Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" resound in the myriad suggestions for slowing down the pace of life and conserving resources: "Use the bus, Gus," "Recycle, Michael," and so on, thus bringing the recycling ethic not only to her pictures but to her words as well. (environmental tips, resources) (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
