ALA Booklist (Wed May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

Emberley's latest title isn't as easy to follow as some of his other recent efforts, such as Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book BKL Je 1 & 15 01. The book uses Emberley's signature step-by-step approach, adding a few easily drawn symbols at a time to create, in this case, vehicles such as locomotives, baggage carts, and pickup trucks. In several spreads, though, the symbols are blurry, and children may not understand how to fit the pieces together. Even so, the subject will please young artists fascinated by cars and trains, and die-hard Emberley fans will enjoy the funny embellishments, such as the pair of alarmed pigs in the pickups and the enormous wheels on the monster truck. For larger collections.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

Step-by-step drawings of trains and trucks fill this book like the ultimate traffic jam. Emberley demonstrates his signature method on the first spread and fills the rest of the book with vehicles made up of simple shapes: rectangles, triangles, lines, circles, squiggles, and dots. Any child with a fondness for the subject matter, a box of markers, and plenty of blank paper will be well rewarded.

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

Anyone can be an artist with Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains, a welcome addition to his other drawing books. The opening page pictures the simple shapes and letters necessary to do the drawings. He then shows two lines of images, explaining, """"The bottom row tells what to draw. The top row tells where to put it."""" Interior pages similarly show each step in the process of drawing a train from engine to caboose truck, trolley car and more. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-Emberley focuses on teaching children how to draw these vehicles in a simple manner. The first page shows a group of shapes and lines, explaining, "If you can draw these things you will be able to draw all the things in this book." That's the only text that appears. The artist then leads children through a step-by-step process. He starts off with trains, moving on to pickup trucks, vans, and heavy trucks. The last page shows stick people in various poses, as well as a cat, bird, and an assortment of "smiley" faces. The simple line drawings are done in black and white, highlighted with blue, red, green, or yellow. A good purchase for libraries in which Emberley's other titles enjoy frequent circulation, or where materials on learning to draw are in demand.-Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.