Can airplanes fly to the moon? This one can! "Above the clouds an airplane flies into the sky. On the ground a small boy looks up." A young boy sees a plane overhead and imagines himself in it, traveling all the way to the moon. What does he see on his way? With characteristically spare prose, Caldecott Honor winner Peter McCarty invites readers along for an imaginary trip from the earth to the moon and back again, visiting trains, planes, and boats along the way. McCarty' s luminous illustrations make the boy' s fantasy into a dreamlike journey that ends in his mother' s arms-- a perfect way to end the day. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

McCarty's (Hondo and Fabian) silvery-white pencil illustrations and unadorned sentences make for an evanescent airplane journey. A vintage twin-engine aircraft (the popular Douglas DC-3, introduced in 1935) soars into fluffy gray-and-white clouds as the book begins. "On the ground/ a small boy/ looks up./ He wonders/ what it would be like/ to be on that flight." Readers see a boy with a dandelion puff of light hair, knee-deep in fuzzy lichen-gray grass, then inside the plane, gazing out the window with a look of wonderment. The plane passes over an olive-gold convertible and "a train/ speeding down the tracks," allowing for another '30s reference to the famous Santa Fe Super Chief passenger line. This is no ordinary voyage, however, because the mysterious plane "would fly into/ outer space." McCarty shows it leaving Earth's orbit and gliding over a cratered but soft-focus Moon surface. The young passenger, in luminous astronaut gear, steps out and takes some weightless hops before climbing back aboard. In a haunting image whose layout recalls Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World, the child runs home through the soft grass, then into the arms of his mother, who has been taking laundry off the line as an airplane flies high above. McCarty's narrative unfolds in a whisper, with quiet words and cushiony layers of soothing gray. Despite a potentially exciting blastoff, the classic machines never sputter or roar, and every detail seems well-insulated in reverie. This bedtime story for flight fans has the loft of a goose-down pillow. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Starred Review. PreS-K This gentle bedtime story begins when a small boy sees a prop plane in the sky and imagines riding in it first gliding over a car, then soaring past a train. His flight of imagination takes him beyond the ocean and into outer space, where he lands on the moon, takes a few steps on its surface, jumps, and flies âÇ£just like the airplane.âÇ  At last he returns home to his mother, who tucks him into bed to dream of airplanes. A prop plane is just the right technology for this subdued tale, and the monochromatic pencil-on-watercolor-paper illustrations create the atmosphere of a silent movie. This quiet mood encourages readers to listen for the hum of the engine and the whisper of the wind. The bookâÇÖs sensual qualities will entrance youngsters, and the soothing text and soft artwork create the comfort and reassurance that children need at bedtime. A must-buy. Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

A small boy stands in a field of tall grass. Looking up at an airplane flying through the sky, he imagines what it would be like on that flight--to fly faster than a car can go, to soar past a train, to burst into space. He imagines stepping off the plane onto the surface of the moon, where, when he jumps, his weightlessness will make him fly. But soon he must bring himself back to the plane, back to Earth, where his mother is waiting for him. The simple text (with its ending a gentle reminder of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are) appears one brief line to a page. Though this idea (and it's more an idea than a story) will catch kids' imagination, it is only when combined with McCarty's art that it soars. Using pencils, McCarty creates soft-edged, silver-tone artwork notable for its elegant simplicity. Yet this is undoubtedly child-friendly. The train, the plane, and even the surface of the moon have a solidity that will make children want to reach out and touch, even as the pictures' dreamy softness will move kids to a space inside themselves. McCarty catches both the way children's imaginations work and the connections they make. IleneCooper. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.