Review: Amazing Aeroplanes

Amazing Aeroplanes

Written by Tony Mitton

Illustrated by Ant Parker

Publication Date: 2002

Publisher: Kingfisher

ISBN: 978-0-7534-1488-0

Summary/back cover:

An aeroplane’s amazing, for it travels through the sky, above the clouds, for miles and miles, so very fast and high!

Jet above the clouds in this picture book with playful art, a kooky animal crew and a brilliant picture dictionary. The story CD lets children follow along with the jolly rhyming text, with music and fun sound effects to accompany the reading. It’s the perfect way to learn about aeroplanes – at bedtime, on car journeys, or anytime at all!

This book is from the Amazing Machines series. As the mother of two boys I’m likely to end up with the entire set. It is worth checking out Bronwyn’s review of Terrific Trains, from the same series.

I purchased this book to prepare my little ones before I took them on their first plane ride. I would absolutely recommend it for this purpose.

It’s not really a story, but more of a rhyming description of each stage in a plane journey. It covers checking in the bags at the terminal, the pilots preparing for take-off, the cabin crew serving drinks and the aeroplane landing at the destination, amongst other things. At the end of the book is a sort of picture glossary of the parts of the aeroplane and the airport. My children aren’t even two, yet, but can now identify control towers!

This edition also comes with a CD. The CD isn’t essential, but it does include a copy of the story with aeroplane noises on it, which I rate as rather cool.

My rating:  4 out of 5

Review written by team_s

Review: Sadie the Air Mail Pilot

Sadie the Air Mail Pilot

Written and Illustrated by Kellie Strom

Publication Date: 2007
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-385-60506-9

Summary/Back cover:
Once upon a time a few brave pilots in little planes flew the Air Mail.

This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Sadie, a cat, who flies a plane to deliver the mail. She gets caught in a storm one day, but she sticks with her motto of "The winds may blow ice and snow, but still the Air Mail's got to go!"

My 2 year old boy loves this book because we get to make aeroplane noises as we read it, and he enjoys pointing out what animal the other characters in the book are.

I'm intrigued to know exactly where Air Mail HQ is in this book - one of the lines is the Chief giving orders for where everyone is to fly: "Pete, you fly the mail to Lima, Gus, you go to Santiago, and Charlie to Cordoba. Jack and Barney, you two do the route to Panama," - we're obviously in South America, but that seems to be quite a big area that these little planes cover!

All the same, this is a lovely wee book that I can definitely recommend.

My rating: 4 out of 5 - it's not a rhyming book, so may not appeal to the very young, but definitely appeals to toddlers who are into aeroplanes and making onomatopoeic sounds.

Review written by Bronwyn