Trucks, Planes, and Trains

written and illustrated by Byron Barton

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books

Each 34 Pages

Ages 3-7

Publishers Summary:

Trucks: The tow trucks, cement trucks, and newspaper delivery trucks pictured here all help people and will fascinate small children.

Planes: Children explore the many ways we use airplanes, from seaplanes to crop dusters to planes that write messages in the sky.

Trains: All aboard as the train journeys through a town, past workers repairing a rail and into the station.

These very simple picture books about transportation will delight the youngest, and have enough meat for older preschoolers and beginning readers.

The Turkeybird Speaks: “Now this is the part where I tell you to pull up a chair and your favorite snack so you can settle into a great book. Does it really get any better than trucks, planes, and trains? I would say not! They move, they have wheels, they go fast and they do all sorts of fun things. I especially liked reading my plane book when we traveled cross country to our new home. It was neat to look out the window and see the same sky that I was looking at in my book. These books are a must have for every home. Go get them!”

Mom’s Two Cents: “I have to agree with The Turkeybird and the publishers summary. We initially purchased the Trucks book when he was very little and it instantly became a favorite. Now that he is quite a bit older (at least two years have passed) he still picks them out of our full bookshelf. As he mentioned, we traveled by plane this last summer to move from the DC area to California and the Planes book was a huge hit! There are images of people getting on and off planes in the book and because of the small airport we initially left from, we were able to get aboard the plane just as they did in the book, which he loved! And though you would think these books wouldn’t appeal to girls, even The Littlebug picked the Plane book out yesterday as her book of choice.

“Now, onto the technical side of the book. What I, as a parent, really like about these books are the simple text and straight forward images. It’s not going to be the most beautiful book on your shelf, nor will the words be drawn out and elaborate, but it still holds an entertainment and educational value I can’t deny. Each page has between 3 to 5 words with a simple illustration demonstrating the text. For smaller kids it can often times be overwhelming to have a book filled with words and dramatic images, but these books though not elegant are still captivating. I highly recommend these books for beginning readers and even for older children who may need a respite between larger, more complicated books.”

These books were purchased for our home library.
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Blog Name: Imagination Soup
Blog URL: http://imaginationsoup.net
Twitter Name:@imaginationsoup & @melissawrites
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/54666

When did you start your blog and why?

I started Imagination Soup on a whim this past May. My freelance writing was slow and I decided to teach writing classes for kids over the summer.  I named my program Imagination Soup and started a blog to share fun literacy activities with parents, hoping to inspire children to take my writing classes.  My writing classes took off and so did Imagination Soup, the blog.  Now, Imagination Soup has learning activities in literacy, math and science, all of which can be integrated together.  I love writing and researching these ideas.  It combines my background as a teacher with my new life as a mom and writer.  It’s my perfect job!

Tell us a little about yourself outside of your interest in books.

I’m a mom of two girls, a freelance writer, teacher with an M.A. in Global Education and coffee aficionado. As a child, my mom would take a cardboard box to the library to haul home our weekly books — on our bikes. We didn’t own a television so all I did was read.  I was the kid who got in trouble at school for reading instead of doing my class work.  Such a trouble maker!



Your favorite book from your youth and the story behind it.

My favorite book was a series of books, The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  My mom read aloud to us every night and I can still imagine Laura’s story as I did in bed so many year ago.  I vividly remember a scene from (I think) The Long Winter where the snow was so high that the family had to hold onto a line tied to the barn and the house so they wouldn’t get lost in the blizzard-like conditions. All the books stuck in my mind as I imagined myself as Laura, facing the trials and challenges of the frontier. Her entire life was such an adventure, I loved reading about every bit of it.

Melissa’s site is wonderful! As a mom of two little ones I have to say that the site wasn’t only well put together, but it’s also a great resource for activities and educational tools. Everything is broken down into categories and it makes it so easy just to jump right into what you’re looking for. In particular I love the “Imagination” section. I’m not very creative sometimes when it comes to making up things to do with little kids that keep their interest, but she has numerous ideas that require little or no money to put together. I highly recommend it!

Also, Melissa is currently holding a few different giveaways one for a free one year subscription to Little Bird Tales activity books. Another for those car kids out there a Solar Racing Car. And two ebooks – Get Smart Play:  15 Fun Themes from Bakery to Veterinarian and Ready, Set, Blog:  Writing a Family Blog. So head on over and check it out!

And if you’re interested in joining in on the When I Was Young Feature just let me know by filling out my contact form and thank you!

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Tomorrow it will be announced (Jan. 5, 2010) that the new face of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature will be Katherine Paterson.

I thought this was fitting considering the discussion of the Newbery Award this month and Paterson is a two time Newbery Award winner (not that I had anything to do with the decision of course). Most of you may recognize her from the film Bridge to Terabithia which is based on the book that Paterson wrote and won the Newbery award for in 1978. She also won the Newbery award for her book Jacob I Have Loved in 1981 as well as a Newbery Honor for The Great Gilly Hopkins in 1979.

The theme for Paterson’s platform will be “Read for Your Life“. I have to say that from the start I LOVE this! It can mean so many things, but specifically for Paterson she says, “With books, kids (and adults) use their ‘powers of intellect and imagination’ and experience ‘delight.’ Stories also teach children about people from other religions, races, and countries. Books help us make friends who are different from ourselves.” There is so much to be learned from Paterson as she uses this theme to touch the lives of children all over the country.

The position of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature was created just two years ago and until today was represented by John Scieszka, a powerhouse in children’s literature (especially for boys). Paterson will hold the position for 2 years and another representative will be selected. It is sponsored by The Children’s Book Council and The Library of Congress’ Center for the Book with the intent of, “raising national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.”

Scieszka will be deeply missed by many, but I’m sure that Paterson will bring to the cause a new perspective and wonderful insight into the continued education of our children through reading. I look forward to the next two years to see how the presence of young people’s literature changes with Paterson at the helm.

For more information check out these sites:

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly

Katherine Paterson

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“The masses have spoken (apparently the masses are small in number, but that’s okay) and you have all put in your two cents. So, here it is, the list of awards we’ll explore over the next twelve months by month. This is going to be exciting! I promise to try not to bore you to death over details and will do my best to make it something you’ll remember the next time you’re deciding on your next great book.”

“Without further ado, THE LIST:

1. Newbery Medal
2. Cybils Awards
3. The Schneider Family Book Awards
4. Odyssey Award
5. Golden Kite Award for Illustrators
6. Sid Fleischman Award
7. IRA Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards
8. National Book Foundation Young People’s Literature Award
9. The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
10. Caldecott Medal
11. Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
12. The William C. Morris YA Debut Award

Here are some of the award labels/seals you’ll see over the next twelve months:

If you are interested in reading along as we go on this journey our first book to be reviewed will be Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary which received a Newbery Honor in 1978.

Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.