ALA Booklist

A celebration for train lovers, this simple, rhyming picture book gives a few basic facts about freight trains and what the special train cars do. Clear, bright, double-page pictures with thick black lines and neon colors show the engine close up, big and strong, and then steaming across the countryside pulling lots of cars along. The various cars carry trucks or grain or gas or logs or steel or scrap. Toddlers will enjoy making the hoot, roar, and rumble sounds and identifying the various cars, just like the enthusiastic kid on the final double-page spread, who is playing with a train set in his room. Older preschoolers will be ready for the endpapers that give a brief definition of a flatcar, a hopper, a boxcar, and others terms, and describe the amazing loads they carry.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A child expresses a keen interest in all manner of aircraft in I Love Planes! by Philemon Sturges, illus. by Shari Halpern. Endpapers describe flying machines and terms (e.g., """"Sky scratches are not smoke. They are ice crystals made by the airplane's breath in the cold of the high sky""""), in a format that follows I Love Trains!, which is now available in paperback.

Horn Book

As the train passes by his window, a little boy, wearing overalls and an engineer's hat, expresses his love of trains and describes each type of car and its function--especially "the car that carries Dad." Although the rhyming text sometimes misses, the bold double-page spreads provide expansive black-outlined landscapes and ample room for the brightly colored train to travel across the pages.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1 As he watches a train go by, a little boy describes the vehicle in rhyming text. "Some cars keep things from the rain./Some cars carry trucks or grain,/or cows,/or hogs,/or gas,/or logs." However, by the child's reckoning, "the best car's at the end,/and as the train goes round the bend," he waves, "glad/to see the car that carries Dad." Boldly colored, unadorned illustrations accompany the text. Additional information about trains is provided on the endpapers. Although this title is not as well constructed as Donald Crews's Freight Train (Greenwillow, 1978) or as detailed as Gail Gibbons's Trains (Holiday, 1987), youngsters should enjoy the simple story, whether it is shared as a read-aloud or one-on-one. Melinda Piehler, North Tonawanda Public Library, NY