Transport! Everything Goes: On Land by Brian Biggs

Wow! There are so many cars. Where is everyone going, Dad?

Well may Henry ask. He and Dad are on their way to pick up Mom at the downtown library, and all the world seems to be on wheels, too.

Brian Biggs' newest, Everything Goes: On Land (HarperCollins, 2011), takes us on a tour of transportation on land in perky cartoon style. Young Henry has lots of questions about the vehicles they see--convertible sportsters, electric cars, vans, SUVs, and plain old station wagons in a carpool--and all kinds of trucks--dump trucks, 18-wheel tractor- trailers, motor homes, firetrucks, cement mixers, and ice cream vendor trucks.

And since this is a big city scene, that's not all Henry sees. There are trolleys, elevated trains, subways reached through stairs to the underground station and tracks, school buses, city buses, and airport shuttles, even double-decker tourist buses. And then there are the bicycles--tandems, trikes, racing bikes, mountain bikes--and of course, those cool cruisers, the motorcycles--dirt bikes, police bikes, scooters, choppers, and big Hawgs with motorcycle gang guys in leather and plenty of bling.

If you have a nascent mini-motorhead at home, this new series by graphic artist Biggs has it all. The first in a planned series on all forms of transport, this one is a worthy successor to the perennial go-to book of go, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, with city scenes just as teaming with vehicles and the added fillip of a human boy to ask the questions. Biggs' book also offers an additional treat, with an iconic figure (a la Waldo) to search for an every page and an additional brainteaser in a figure that doesn't belong in his cityscapes to find among the variety of mini-episodes going on on every page. This one is a keeper for those in the preschool set who find all things mechanical to have a sort of magic of their own.

Watch a brief preview of the book here.