Sturges and Halpern (I Love Trains!, 2001, etc.) team up again for the not-unexpected airborne entry in their series of picture books on the apparatus of travel. A child, most likely a little boy, declares his love of flying machines of all kinds from planes and jets to balloons and gliders. He lists the things he'd like to do while in the air: "I want to land on the sea and not get wet, / Then zoom to grandpa's in my jumbo jet!" The bottom line: he loves planes. Halpern's bright, full-bleed illustrations are as charmingly simple as before. Sturges's rhyming text will lend itself to quick memorization. Young flight enthusiasts will soon be taking off on solo reading jaunts. Front and back endpapers, much like the previous volumes, feature a sentence or two of information next to pictures of each flying machine. The whole book would work well for group sharing, while those endpapers would be a perfect stepping-off point for one-on-one sharing with older preschoolers. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

PreS^-Gr. 1. This companion to I Love Trains! (2000) evokes a young boy's passion for planes of all kinds--from gliders to dive-bombers. Relayed in first person, the short text, which sometimes rhymes, reveals the places the narrator wants to go and the things he wants to do, such as "float to the moon in a big balloon." "Most of all," he concludes, "I want to fly to where stars twinkle in the sky . . . and visit Mom," who is pictured in a space station. The simplicity of the child's words is well matched by the colorful, uncluttered images, outlined in black, which call up work by Byron Barton and Charles Schulz. Endpapers front and back, each different, buzz with plane references and a few facts. This is a high-flying treat for children already fascinated with planes; its appealing jacket and clean design will attract others to the thrill of being airborne, too. --Julie Cummins

PreS-K-After folding and flying a paper airplane, a boy dreams about ways of traveling aloft, such as balloons, blimps, and spaceships. Down on Earth, readers see him soaring on a swing and being twirled around in the air by his mother. Children will enjoy the bold colors and simple text in this third outing from Sturges and Halpern. They will particularly enjoy finding out that the child's mother is an astronaut. Bright endpapers show a range of flying machines with a little bit of information about each of them. Preschool storyhours will soar with this book. Pair it with Douglas Florian's Airplane Ride (HarperCollins, 1984) and Donald Crews's Flying (Morrow, 1989). A great choice for most collections.-Bina Williams, Bridgeport Public Library, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A young aviation lover daydreams about being a passenger on every type of flying machine he can think of, from a hot-air balloon to a space station (where his astronaut mom works). The flat, bold images and simple text will captivate the youngest flying enthusiasts, while the more detailed information on the endpapers will help older readers who want to know what distinguishes various planes. From HORN BOOK Fall 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.