Good Night Engines
PreSchool-Grade 2-In this imaginative bedtime story, a little boy is putting his toy cars, trucks, train, and plane away for the night. As he guides the train along the windowsill one last time, a real one "thunders down the line" and quietly comes to rest. He brings his vehicles into safe quarters just as the neighborhood autos arrive at their carports. On the final page, the child sleeps in his bed, cradling a red toy car, his engine spent. Told in rhyme, the story is as smooth and easy as a familiar lullaby: "Wheels on runway in a rush./Grinding. Stopping. Resting./Hush." Iwai's acrylic, full-page spreads match the quiet text. Dominant colors reflect the shifting light, so that the pinks and oranges of the early pages give way to deeper purples and blues by book's end. The perspective changes not only from the boy's room to the outside world, but also from the scale of his playthings to the objects beyond. Children will relate to this depiction of this end-of-day ritual, and the book is sure to appeal to kids who love big rigs.Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.