Review Detail

Transported: 50 Vehicles That Changed the World

Middle Grade Non-Fiction 490

Amazing look at all sorts of vehicles

October 10, 2023

Overall rating

4.7

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Learning Value

5.0

This large format picture book illustrates a huge range of types of transportation, from Bronze Age wagons and Viking Longships to the Mars Rover and Solar-powered airplanes. Each item gets a lushly illustrated two-page spread, with scattered text boxes detailed different aspects of the vehicles. Each has a "facts and stats" box that includes the people who used them, the top speed, and often approximate dimensions. There's also a short discussion about how the particular vehicle changed the world. Some entries, like the Tea Clipper, show a very particular example, and give details about that item, like the Cutty Sark. Individual items also have the years active, such as the Lotus 49 Formula One Racing Car or the Peterbilt 379 Truck. There's a fantastic glossary at the end of the book, and a helpful index.

Good Points

The illustrations are fantastic and look like art that could be hung on the walls, but since they all consist of two pages, there's no way to take them out and frame them. There are plenty of details in the backgrounds, and I love that the Saturn rocket, because it is so tall, is presented in a way that makes it necessary to turn the book sideways! There's plenty of fun facts on every page.

While younger readers will enjoy looking at the pictures, this is also packed full of information for older students who are researching, or who just love transportation trivia!

Young transportation enthusiasts will enjoy this book after they read Dussaussois' Ultimate Spotlight: Cars, Sodomka's Means of Transport, Muguet's Do You Know?: Boats and other Water Transports, and Faber's Special Delivery: A Book's Journey, that shows how many of these means of transport are used in getting a product to consumers.