Go, girls, go!

This rousing call to girl power breaks the chain of titles like Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (2011) that feature anthropomorphized diggers, dozers, and cranes with no one at the controls. It puts girls in the driver's seat of all kinds of vehicles, in which they haul things around, steer into port, fly through the air, and save people making a lot of noise as they work. Girls drive, push, and propel through the book, with a dynamic layout dividing the pages into horizontal streaks of movement, followed by pages giving shout-outs in huge, bright letters to the noise each girl makes ( VROOM! goes Emma, HOOT! goes Meg, CLANK! goes Jayla ) and culminating with a chorus of GO, GIRLS, GO! Active verbs abound, the rhyming text is propulsive, and Black's illustrations are blasting with color and movement. A satisfying ending moves the text from what girls can do to What about you? Give it a try! Go, girl, go! --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2019 Booklist

Girl power meets things that go in this colorful early picture book.Girls with diverse skin colors, hair colors, and hair textures drive, conduct, steer, speed, rev, fly, build, load, dump, and rocket in vehicles of many different types. A spread introducing three girls being active in their vehicles is followed by a spread calling out the sounds their machines make ("VROOM! goes Emma. / HOOT! goes Meg. / CLANK! goes Jayla"), then a spread saying "GO, GIRLS, GO!" This three-spread pattern repeats with three new girls and vehicles each time. From trains and tractors to tugboats, taxis, planes, and motorcycles, these girls "go" in every way, working, playing and saving the day. Girls from previous spreads help girls on later spreads, showing an ideal of cooperation and unity that furthers the value of the girl-power message. On the last "GO, GIRLS, GO!" spread, all the girls march together, some holding signs for peace, equality, and womanhooda touch that may tip the balance a bit too far into the realm of didacticism for some tastes. The illustrations feature bright primary colors, block shapes, patterns, stars, and large, clear fonts that will appeal to young audiences. With repeated readings, pre-readers will be reciting the words on their own.A hit for girls who identify strongly with girlhood and love things that go. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.