cover image Zoom! Zoom! Sounds of Things That Go in the City

Zoom! Zoom! Sounds of Things That Go in the City

Robert Burleigh, illus. by Tad Carpenter. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4424-8315-6

“Wake up, city!” booms Burleigh in this companion to 2009’s Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! In an imaginary metropolis (where coffee is still just five cents a cup), all the vehicles—from bikes to subways—spring to life, most of them with eager smiles and bright headlight eyes. Each spread is snapshot of people happily in motion at a particular time of day, from the early morning garbage pickup to the time when late-night revelers call it quits (“Tired dancers/ slowly walking./ Subway riders/ softly talking”). Mid-afternoon finds school kids on a public bus eager to get home and hit the streets on wheels of their own: “Step on it, Driver./ Show some speed./ Rock it. Roll it./ Take the lead./ School’s out city!” reads one of Burleigh’s clipped couplets. Carpenter’s (Sad Santa) carefree scenes, digitally rendered and saturated in primary colors, are the very picture of urban hustle and bustle, with a jaunty look of 1960s animation. Visual sound effect cues abound in dynamic display type: “rumble! rumble! rattle-rattle-roll!” As much fun as flooring it—and a lot safer. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)