George Ella Lyon teams up with her son Benn in this follow-up to Planes Fly! (2013), once again working with Wiggins. From grand ocean liners to boats "so short that fore is almost aft," the Lyons highlight a wide variety of watercrafts while introducing nautical lingo ("A lookout's on the poop deck./ Controls are on the bridge./ The bathroom's called the head./ The galley holds the fridge"). Wiggins's majestic seascapes are postcard-perfect and dashed with hints of humor (a certain butcher, baker, and candlestick maker have a cameo), leaving readers with the sense that floatation is just as miraculous as flight. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

This companion to Trucks Roll! (rev. 7/07) and Planes Fly! (rev. 9/13) introduces young children to a veritable fleet of sea vehicles: tugboats, sailboats, mail boats, canoes, steamboats, gondolas, bilibilis, and many more. Pitched to young children, the buoyant (get it?) rhymes are both factually informativepacked as they are with maritime terminologyand giddily unpredictable. Some lines play up poetic imagery, while others are child-pleasingly jocular (A lookouts on the poop deck. / Controls are on the bridge. / The bathrooms called the head. / The galley holds the fridge) or mind-expanding (When seaplanes land / they land on floats, / so on the water / seaplanes are boats). The digital, sun-bathed illustrations, with the look of vintage European travel posters, arent limited to the seaside: theres a city-park scene with remote-control boats on a pond, along with a bathtub scene, a ship-in-a-bottle scene, and one of a swimming poolon a cruise ship, no less. One page goes concrete poetrystyle, with the words carried along a snaking rivers path: Boats boats boats boats / float float float float. The authors and illustrators enthusiasm for their seaworthy subject matter spills over. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kentucky's poet laureate Lyon and her son present another book in their travel series, this time a companion piece to Planes Fly! (2013). The rhyming text describes many kinds of boats: Houseboats, sloops, river wherries; / car, train, and people ferries. Even smaller crafts appear: Toy boats, bath boats, / scrub and rub-a-dub boats. There is even one double-page spread showing an array of 21 boats. Transport aficionados will enjoy finding some unusual vessels, such as a bathtub with a motor, a boat in a bottle, a swan boat, and even a ghost ship. Digital illustrations in light blue or yellow washes serve as backgrounds for touches of bright reds and oranges on the crafts and people. Whether in the tub, at a lake in the park, or on an undersea submarine, the many details encourage exploration of the ships themselves as well as the surrounding land or water environments. Silhouetted endpapers give one more look at the fantastic diversity of water transport.--Gepson, Lolly Copyright 2015 Booklist

PreS-Gr 2-For those who love the water and those who watch what floats, this poetically inspired look at vessels is the watery sequel to the author's Planes Fly! (S.& S., 2013). While colorful images present each type of boat, text extends the vocabulary well past boat parts (keel, hull, bow, stern, bilge, beam, fore, aft, sail, engine, paddle, oar, poop-deck, head, bridge, galley) to a global adventure of small and large crafts (gondola, skiff, bilibili, sampan, junk, coracle, dinghy). Each page presents a picture "from shore to shore" through digital images and rhyming text. Perspectives change along a river, through the water, under the waves, from the birds above to a cross-view of the galley below, with a soft texture in imitation of the aquatic surroundings. From the smallest toy boat to an ocean liner, this book has all vessel sizes covered, enough to convince readers to stretch out, float, and "be a boat." VERDICT A title both for the very young and those developing their interest in this topic.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Ahoy, maties! As in her Trucks Roll! (2007) and Planes Fly! (2013), Lyon and her co-author celebrate a ubiquitous, well-loved form of transport in verse and launch it along on young readers' imaginations. Numerous boats of all kinds and sizes, from different cultures and parts of the world and used for a variety of purposes, including play and habitation, are introduced here. Young readers will be awash in vessels plying waterways from rivers to lakes, ponds to bathtubs, and pools to oceans. Front and back endpapers feature a floating parade, and the colorful digital illustrations of the various boats and their environs showcase many shades of watery blue and exude spirited energy. The staunchest of landlubbers will yearn to set sail; one can almost hear the gently lapping waves. Overall, the verses are jaunty, though the rhymes and rhythms are inconsistent, sometimes even a bit clunky. Children will appreciate learning nifty new seafaring terms such as "poop deck," "head," "bilibilis," "wherries," "coracles," and "dinghies," all italicized in the text, as they picture themselves at the helm of any of the boats floating on these pages. In some illustrations, however, it's not always clear to which boats certain terms refer, so parental sailing expertise may be required. Young navigation enthusiasts, from bathtub ships' captains to ocean-cruiser wannabes, will enjoy this voyage. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.