Taxi, Go! by Patricia Toht, illustrated by Maria Karipidou

There are never enough books about cars, or good read-alouds for younger toddlers and preschoolers. There are always gaps in publishing, but this is one that you'd really think would be filled, considering how popular and prolific vehicle books are supposed to be!

Taxi, a bright red car with front windows that double as big eyes, wakes up and starts zipping through the city. As it picks up passengers, Taxi passes a diverse group of people with a variety of body types. It picks up a white woman in a pink business suit with tiny feet and sturdy thighs, passes a pickup truck full of watermelons with two brown-skinned drivers, stops for a brown-skinned child with curly dark hair and skinny legs and arms who is accompanied by an adult in loose pants and a sweater curved over a rounded belly, stops for firefighters rescuing a cat, watched by a white-haired woman with a walker, passes a game of soccer with a female coach with a full bust and a young player with one leg and forearm crutches, and so on. After a day of picking up and driving around passengers, Taxi finally gets to go home and say good night.

The brisk rhymes are punctuated with several STOP and GO sequences, and although the rhymes are a little shaky, this is a great spot to have children join in with the refrain as well as teach them simple self-regulation, following Taxi's example of waiting before they GO.

Verdict: Cheerful rhymes, a friendly vehicle and streets on which to track its progress, and a truly diverse cast make this a top choice for read-alouds and sure to be a favorite with vehicle-loving little ones. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781536231533; Published February 2024 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library