Busy Street

by Edward Miller

Overview

Vehicles and automobiles go down the street with places to go and jobs to complete.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593377253
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Series:	Beginner Books
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	6.81(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.33(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Edward Miller has written and illustrated many books for children, including The Monster Health Book: A Guide to Eating Healthy, Being Active & Feeling Great for Monsters & Kids! He is the creator of many Sticker Stories, including A to Z Aliens, Rockets, and Speed Machines. Miller lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

2021-11-16
Mommy and Bonnie—two anthropomorphic rodents—go for a joyride and notice a variety of conveyances around their busy town.

The pair encounter 22 types of vocational vehicles as they pass various sites, including a fire engine leaving a firehouse, a school bus approaching a school, and a tractor trailer delivering goods to a supermarket. Narrated in rhyming quatrains, the book describes the jobs that each wheeled machine does. The text uses simple vocabulary and sentences, with sight words aplenty. Some of the rhymes don't scan as well as others, and the description of the mail truck’s role ("A mail truck brings / letters and cards / to mailboxes / in people's yards) ignores millions of readers living in yardless dwellings. The colorful digitally illustrated spreads are crowded with animal characters of every type hustling and bustling about. Although the art is busy, observant viewers may find humor in details such as a fragile item falling out of a moving truck, a line of ducks holding up traffic, and a squirrel’s spilled ice cream. For younger children enthralled by vehicles, Sally Sutton’s Roadwork (2011) and Elizabeth Verdick’s Small Walt series provide superior text and art and kinder humor. Children who have little interest in cars, trucks, and construction equipment may find this offering a yawner. Despite being advertised as a beginner book, neither text nor art recommend this as an engaging choice for children starting to read independently. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Smoother rides are out there. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews