Night Cars

This is a very sweet book. I was going through some old books, and found this one. My son is almost 18 and about to go off to college. This is the only childhood book of his I saved. It had special meaning to me as a single Dad. The Dad in the book is patient and loving with his young son. The neighborhood presents a world of wonder, but the boy is secure with his Dad. Not many childrens books focus on the father son relationship. This one is a gem.

I don't know where this crummy horn reviewer is coming from, but our son loved this book and heard it read to him (willingly! eagerly!) about a zillion times. It is just a sweet little gem of a bedtime book, and the illustrations are wonderful - very evocative of urban/residential streetlife and what you see from your two-flat window. Highly recommended (and muchly missed - our son's doing his own "bedtime reading" now....).

This book is a WONDERFUL bedtime book. One of the best around. The reviewer from Horn Books (who said that the book has badly rhymed verse) clearly has no appreciation for any but the most trivial and obvious rhymes (e.g. night and light). It's all in how you read it. In a British/Canadian vernacular (the author is from Canada), "green" and "again" nearly rhyme in "engines roar, light turns green, night cars on their way again". The text of this book is hypnotic and delightful (AND our child loves to hear it again and again). Also, the illustrations are far from unexceptional. The artist Eric Beddows has a wonderful sense of detail and weaves visual themes throughout the book.It's as good or better than "Train Song" by Diane Siebert and Mike Wimmer (Illustrator).

This is a darling versed poem/story with loads of rhythm and great illustrations. My 2-yr old makes me read it nightly and can recite most of it on his own!

Horn Book is under the gross misimpression that poetry which doesnot rhyme is necessarily bad. Night Cars is an endearing story, with a wonderfully sonorous meter. The illustrations hold a toddler's attention. It's a perfect bedtime story for bad sleepers and their parents.