a rush of air a car is there hop, hop, hop on the subway!Come along for the ride as a little girl and her mother hop on the subway. From spinning turnstiles and musicians performing on the platforms to people hopping off and on and lights flashing past in the tunnels, the sights and sounds of the subway have an energy all their own. Anastasia Suen’s sprightly text and Karen Katz’s brightly colored patterns and lively perspectives combine for a pitch perfect celebration of an underground train ride, where the hustle and bustle is only part of the fun. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

"We go down/ to go uptown/ down, down, down/ in the subway"-opens the text as a mother and young daughter embark on an exuberant underground excursion. In 14 simple quatrains, Suen (Window Music) turns city life into one big happy hub-bub; every third line consists of a key monosyllabic word repeated three times and printed in contrasting colored type, driving home the percussive sensations of navigating underground travel. The illustrations channel the zest of a kindergarten-age art enthusiast. Katz (Counting Kisses) creates a merry metropolis that is both multicolored and multicultural; all the inhabitants sport brightly patterned clothing and even brighter smiles. Capitalizing on the book's horizontal format, the full-bleed spreads portray the subway experience from a variety of perspectives. Katz catches buskers boogying and passengers coming and going; she follows the trains as they snake through the tunnels; etc. In one cheeky vignette, she shows all the riders from the neck down-a sort of toddler's-eye view that should strike a chord with the audience. The characters' glee is so infectious that even die-hard junior suburbanites will find themselves aspiring to the straphanger's life. Ages 3-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information