Planes Fly!

Lyon packs an impressive dose of aeronautical vocabulary into her succinct survey of "bi-planes / tri-planes / gotta-love-the-sky planes. / Prop planes / jet planes / how-fast-can-you-get planes" -- a vocabulary that's neatly explicated in Wiggins's sweeping spreads in which, for example, he underlines the loopy acrobatics of three "prop planes" with the straight contrail line of a needle-nosed jet. Meanwhile, leaving most of the defining of terms to a reader-aloud or knowledgeable tot, the author neatly shoehorns such things as "rudders, flaps / ailerons, tail" and "headset, radar / schedule, phone" into her jaunty verse. Segueing into planes' uses and "your" possible journey, Lyon hints at science ("air holds you") and outlines an experience that Wiggins brings to graphic life with deftly varied passengers in a pleasantly spacious aircraft interior; landscapes from the air; and a sunset lingering over city lights. His saturated colors, clarity of composition, strategic generalizations, and wealth of significant detail add up to a winning introduction that's nicely capped by Lyon's extension of the idea that "world's mighty big / but there's just one sky / and it's yours to travel. / Planes fly!" joanna rudge long