Steggall's (The Life of a Car
) virtuoso torn-paper collages follow a boy and his family on a train trip through the British countryside to the coast, where an unnamed (but grandmotherly) relative greets them with open arms. As the title hints, the economical text is strictly impressionistic: “Whoooooosh! Whoooooosh!... rocking and rolling and rushing and racing, skimming the sky, skimming the sky.” The detail-rich, full-spread pictures, however, are stunning in their evocation of the real world. Sleekly handsome, the long red, black and white–striped train cuts quite a figure, its boldly graphic exterior and zigzag shape playing counterpoint to lush hills, rippling waters and workaday towns. Steggall's tour de force appears near the end, when the train crosses a classic masonry arch bridge spanning an estuary. It's an image that's both postcard-perfect and triumphantly dynamic—a tribute to both the joys of trainspotting and the ingenuity of the human race. Ages 2–5. (July)
