Rocket Town

PreS-K—What if rockets dominated an entire town and every other mode of transportation were converted into a spaceship version of its former self? That is the premise of this richly illustrated offering. With helmet in hand and accompanied by his dog, a man drives his pickup truck from a rural setting to a place where fast-food joints, school buses, unicycles, and fire trucks have all turned into rocket ships, alongside an array of other ships whose origins are less apparent, like Chopper, Guzzler, and the green Stinky Onion. In this graphical feast for the eyes, filled with dark concentrated colors and abundant geometric shapes, Logan does not so much tell a story as state that each invention is either big, small, fast, slow, or moving up or down. At Rocket Ray's Pre-Owned Rockets, the protagonist makes his own purchase, leading to the inevitable "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLAST OFF!" Reminiscent of Donald Crews's vehicle books (HarperCollins), this board book will appeal to young transportation buffs.—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT