Go! Go! Go! Stop!

When Little Green, a smiling circle whose only word is an emphatic “GO,” finds his way to a construction site, things get out of hand in this slightly scattered story. Harper (Henry’s Heart) draws a crew of cheerful construction vehicles, outlined in crayony black line, with photographic dirt and rubble providing a rugged backdrop as they work to build a bridge. Little Green hops up into the bottom of a skinny rectangle held up by a crane (readers will quickly recognize it as a stoplight in the making), where he proceeds to shout “GO! GO! GO!” Although some muddy chaos results, the action and construction efforts aren’t always easy to follow (despite motion lines indicating the trucks’ movements), and a couple plot turns don’t, well, go anywhere. “I’m going to surprise Dump Truck,” says Bulldozer, pushing dirt up a hill, though nothing ever comes of it. Still, Harper (with help from a circle that goes by Little Red) gets across the idea that in a world of go-go-go, some judicious use of “STOP!” can be “just what everyone needed to rest and get organized.” Ages 2–5. (Mar.)