Even if The Airport Book were only a picture book to prepare preschoolers for a voyage via airplane, it would succeed spectacularly. But it's so much more than that--it's the hint of the many intriguing stories travelers glimpse on any trip to the airport, whether it's a tearful goodbye or a giant, misshapen, taped-up package marked "FRAGILE."
Lisa Brown (How to Be; The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming; Mummy Cat) begins the entertaining journey with a stylish young mixed-race family piling into a taxi, the daughter's stuffed monkey in tow. The boy in the family is the narrator, describing a busy travel day, step by step. The airport action begins at curbside drop-off, where readers are introduced to some of the colorful individuals--even a dog with a pink-ribbon collar--who will eventually make it aboard the same airplane as the family. One of the many joys of the book is following the meticulously inked and watercolored characters as they move through their travel day--from the mustachioed gentleman in the yellow suit to the nonstop cell-phone talker ("BLAH BLAH BLAH"). The stuffed monkey plays a major role, too, as it gets busted out of the suitcase by the pink-ribbon dog down in the cargo area, then shows up on the conveyor belt at their destination airport: "MONKEY!" the girl happily exclaims. (Even the mystery of the misshapen package is unveiled in the end.)
If there's any justice in the world, The Airport Book will become just as beloved as the transportation book of yesteryear, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness