Known for his exceptionally fine cutaway drawings in books such as Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-of-War (1993) and Egypt in Spectacular Cross-Section (2005), Biesty uses this new book's wide format to showcase gargantuan vehicles, such as an exceptionally long train, a double-decker passenger jet, a gigantic dump truck, an enormous container ship, a jumbo Russian submarine, and (turn the book 90 degrees) the Saturn V rocket for NASA's 1969 moonshot. Each two-page spread begins with an informative paragraph introducing one vehicle. Around a large central picture are lines pointing to individual features, sentences commenting on them, and smaller drawings offering close-up views of details. The boardlike pages allow for lift-the-flap features, as many as seven per spread. Open the flap for a glimpse of what's inside as well as a brief caption commenting on it. Children intrigued by the subject will pore over the handsome illustrations intricately detailed pen-and-ink drawings with colored-pencil shading. An engaging, interactive learning experience.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2014 Booklist

Gr 1-4-"Larger than two blue whales, taller than five giraffes, and weighing more than 130 elephants, the world's largest passenger plane is the Airbus A380." The double-decker super-plane is among eight air, land, and water vehicles featured in this large (12" x 9") lift-the-flap board book. The others are a cargo train that stretches a mile and a half; a huge Russian-made helicopter; the American Saturn V rocket that carried three astronauts to the moon in 1969; the Caterpillar 797F dump truck; the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas; the Russian navy's submarine the Typhoon; and the Maersk Triple-E container ship. Each spreads across the double page in a realistic drawing with some cutaway views and additional small sketches among surrounding bits of labeled text describing physical and mechanical features. Four or five flaps are embedded in each scene, lifting to show some internal detail and a brief explanation. Small thumbholes set into the board page are nearly invisible among the drawing's details, so the flaps are not easy to spot on the page. Explanations are succinct and sometimes dense. Occasionally they're quite confusing, as when they claim that the "Giant Jumbo" plane's fuel-some 84,535 gallons of it-is stored in the plane's smaller rear wings, shown as sleek and flat. Though the cardboard format makes this book look like it's intended for a younger audience, the detailed explanations will appeal to older readers, while teachers or parents may enjoy explaining it to younger ones. Libraries might find it has appeal in browsing collections, and inventive teachers may find the size and weight comparisons useful.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Eight real-life big "dogs"some of which make the monsters of myth and movie look like Chihuahuas.From a three-engine, 135-car coal train and the world's biggest container ship to the Soviet-built Typhoon submarine and Mil Mi26 "Whopper Chopper," these puppies are all designed to carry mammoth payloads over land or sea, through the air or into space. As usual, Biesty renders each with accurate proportions and in detail fine enough that individual workers or passengers can be discernedthough sometimes only as antlike dots. Surrounded by labels and smaller images, each portrait sprawls across a full spread of heavy stock. Revealing cutaways that are either visible or concealed beneath die-cut flaps of diverse shape and size give youngsters a chance to see inside. There is no real sense of relative scale; the Saturn V rocket that requires a 90-degree rotation of the book for readers to fully appreciate it looks downright slender next to the Caterpillar 797F dump truck that dominates the next spread. This quibble aside, there's plenty to keep kids occupied for quite some time here.A gallery of gargantuan delights guaranteed to leave young fans of mountainous machinery panting with pleasure. (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Green and Biesty explore the biggest of the big in this oversize book devoted to vehicles. Among the eight featured are the Airbus A380 passenger plane, the Caterpillar 797F dump truck ("It's as big as a house, and if it were carrying bricks, it could hold enough to build at least eight houses!"), the Typhoon submarine, and the Maersk Triple-E container ship. Each vehicle receives a spread of its own, with cutaway cross-sections and small flaps offering peeks at its inner workings. Biesty's detailed colored-pencil illustrations demonstrate how each machine operates, with labels and captions explaining how various components work together. An informative and appealing resource for readers with a serious interest in what makes things go. Ages 5-9. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.