Zoom! Zoom! Sounds of Things That Go in the City

“Wake up, city!” booms Burleigh in this companion to 2009’s Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! In an imaginary metropolis (where coffee is still just five cents a cup), all the vehicles—from bikes to subways—spring to life, most of them with eager smiles and bright headlight eyes. Each spread is snapshot of people happily in motion at a particular time of day, from the early morning garbage pickup to the time when late-night revelers call it quits (“Tired dancers/ slowly walking./ Subway riders/ softly talking”). Mid-afternoon finds school kids on a public bus eager to get home and hit the streets on wheels of their own: “Step on it, Driver./ Show some speed./ Rock it. Roll it./ Take the lead./ School’s out city!” reads one of Burleigh’s clipped couplets. Carpenter’s (Sad Santa) carefree scenes, digitally rendered and saturated in primary colors, are the very picture of urban hustle and bustle, with a jaunty look of 1960s animation. Visual sound effect cues abound in dynamic display type: “rumble! rumble! rattle-rattle-roll!” As much fun as flooring it—and a lot safer. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)