Go!: Poetry in Motion

Like Lillegard's Hello School! and Wake Up House! this collection features very short verses about inanimate objects, but unfortunately, most of the poetry here eschews the sometimes witty point of view found in the earlier volumes and relies instead on doggerel. The verses describe the objects that allow people to move over the earth and through the skies-a skateboard, hot air balloon, ice cream truck, red wagon, sled, airplane and fire engine. Unfortunately, the rhythm of the poems is ragged and too often the rhymes are sloppy: a ""Freight Train"" is described as ""Boxcars, flatcars/ clickety click click/ carry corn, sugar, wheat,/ steel, lumber, coal.../ Click across the country roll/ the boxcars, flatcars./ Come see! Come quick!/ Clickety click click..."" The skateboard's ""whiz"" rhymes with the made-up word ""zizz"" while in ""Schoolbus"" the color ""yellow"" rhymes with ""hello!"" What the verses lack in originality and dexterity, Gorbechev's (Silly and Sillier) illustrations supply in force. He populates scene after scene with scores of appealing animals. Like Richard Scarry's word books, each spread brims with vignettes of animals engaged in exuberant, fun-filled activities-playing in the snow, riding motorcycles, mowing the lawn and buying popsicles. Youngsters will especially warm to the team of beaver firefighters who tramp intrepidly beside their bright red truck. This collection is a visual delight but often a verbal disappointment. Ages 3-6.