Off Go Their Engines, Off Go Their Lights by Janice Milusich

Off Go Their Engines, Off Go Their Lights by Janice Milusich, illustrated by David Gordon

Rating: 4.5 stars

Sometimes Ben is just a lucky guy, even at the library.  As any almost two year old does, he thinks that pulling a lot of books off of a shelf is way cool.  Of course, I try to discourage such destructive behavior at both at home and at the library--but especially at the library!  At home, sometimes it's just easier to give him the ten minutes to create the mess he so desires...and clean up after bedtime.

This is one book that Ben grabbed, randomly, without seeing its cover, from the stacks.  It's a really nice bedtime book for boys (and girls) who are fairly vehicle-crazy--that's Ben!

Milusich writes the story with a soothing, quiet tone.  A taxi picks up a mom and her son, and they pass by a pumper truck, a dump truck (Ben's favorite), a brown delivery truck, a police car, and an ice cream truck; she explains what they do in one line, and puts them to sleep with another.  One by one you say good night to each truck, and on the last page the mom says good night to her son.

It does have a lot of words in it, so if you've got an impatient little guy/girl on your lap, you might want to wait till 2 or older for this one if you're going to read it at bedtime.

While we've never read it at bedtime (I had to stop taking library books to bed because Ben kept wanting them in his crib, and I'd have several repairs to do in the morning.  When he learns that ripping is not synonymous with reading, we'll change the rule about where library books can and cannot go), we've read it a lot, and Ben "reads" this book by himself a few times a day.  Ben even wiggled himself into Jonathan's lap over the weekend with it.  Our male weim, Guidry, even had to get in on the action, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of all the boys in our family reading together.