All Aboard ABC

Magee and Newman are right on track with this eye-catching alphabet book that focuses on a well-loved subject: trains. Intelligently framed color photographs, shot from a variety of perspectives, stoke reader interest (`` I, i : Inside , looking out, this is what the engineer sees,'' reads the caption for a photo starkly depicting the view from within a car; another particularly successful image is a closeup of springs on a railroad car, illustrating S ). Design and text are creatively integrated: the illustration of a switch, for example, requires the viewer to focus on first one photo of train tracks, and then another. Letters of the alphabet and their corresponding vocabulary words in the text are set off in red ink, unifying the book's concept as well as fanning its visual spark. Ages 3-8. (Sept.)