From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1--In brief, rhyming verses, an African-American child describes her ride on the subway, telling how she and her mother enter through a turnstile, board the train, transfer, and arrive at their final destination. She details the speed of the train, the music heard at a station, the darkness of the tunnels, and the motion of the car. The rhythmic language captures the feel of her journey and a repeated refrain invites readers to participate in the telling of the story. The bright, bold artwork depicts each scene in a realistic manner from the child's point of view. The colorful illustrations show a diverse group of travelers, all with happy expressions on their faces. For youngsters who have never been on a subway, this title provides a wonderful introduction. For veteran riders, it reinforces the experience in a positive manner.--Margaret R. Tassia, Millersville University, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PreS. "We go down / to go uptown / down, down, down / in the subway." With just a few lines of simple poetry on each page, Suen describes a subway ride's rushing movement and sound. Katz's cheerful, stylized paintings add a basic story: a little girl and her mother pass through the turnstiles, enter the cars, whoosh through underground tunnels, transfer subway lines, and finally exit at their stop. Suen's appealing rhythms, with a line of repeated words on each page ("rock, rock, rock"; "flash, flash, flash"), mimic the rolling beat of the zooming trains, while the smiling, round-faced, multihued passengers; bright patterns; and jelly-bean colors in the artwork extend the sense of sunny excitement. Pair this with Caroline Stutson's
Night Train (2002) for a preschool story hour about the noise and thrill of riding the rails.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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