Not Just the Driver!

by Sara Holly Ackerman, Robert Neubecker (Illustrator)

Overview

Come along for the ride and meet the teams behind the machines that get us to our destinations in this “spirited...engaging” (The Horn Book, starred review) rhyming picture book celebrating transportation teamwork and featuring vibrant art by award-winning illustrator Robert Neubecker!

Who makes buses rev and go, through detours, gridlock, storms, and snow? Who sends riders—CLICK, CLICK, CLACK—down the proper railroad track?

It’s not just drivers and pilots and conductors! It’s also mechanics and maintenance workers, loaders and air traffic controllers, ticket agents and dispatchers. Young readers will meet the people who work behind the scenes to keep us and our vehicles moving and explore a whole slew of fun—and essential—transportation professions!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665936378
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	632,106
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 8 Years

About the Author

Sara Holly Ackerman is an early childhood educator and children’s book author based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of the picture book Not Just the Driver!, illustrated by Robert Neubecker. Visit her at SaraHollyAckerman.com.

Robert Neubecker is the award-winning author and illustrator of Linus the Vegetarian T. Rex and the Wow! series. He also illustrated Not Just the Driver! by Sara Holly Ackerman, Shiver Me Timbers! by Douglas Florian, Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth! by Sarah Weeks, I Got Two Dogs by John Lithgow, and Monsters on Machines by Deb Lund. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Robert also illustrates for The New York Times and Slate magazine. He and his family live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Visit Robert at Neubecker.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2024

Readers don’t have to be vehicle aficionados to appreciate these pages: by spotlighting a behind-the-scenes workforce, Ackerman (The Gabi That Girma Wore) and Neubecker (Just Like Rube Gold- berg) expand their audiences’ apertures in terms of both awareness and appreciation. As the title hints, it’s not “just” those piloting machines—by air, land, or water—who make vehicles go. In a busy harbor, for example, where the blue, white-capped water is filled with cargo ships, fishing and pleasure boats, ferries, and even a mini-sub, more than captains are doing the work. Harbormasters are essential, too: “From an office perched on land,/ calm dispatchers lend a hand..../ They study routes. They double-check./ TOOT, TOOT, TOOT—all hands on deck!” Choreographing bustle and variety, thick-lined visuals bring snappy, dramatic rhymes to life. “Teamwork helps the world to move,” after all, and readers will appreciate insight into how, behind each kind of transport, many people work to ensure the journey runs safe and smooth. Figures are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Tricia Lawrence, Erin Murphy Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"This distinctive transportation book with its chirpy, rhyming text appeals to a young vehicle-loving audience while capturing the complicated and often overlooked aspects involved in keeping systems moving."

March/April 2024 Issue - Horn Book

2024-01-20
A paean to air-traffic controllers, bus mechanics, subway signal maintainers, and the other support personnel who ensure that transportation systems work.

Snappy rhyming verse introduces the question: “Who guides floating fleets with ease / and water-travel expertise? / Who checks weather, minds the clocks, / brings the ferry in to docks?” A car ferry, yacht, fishing boat, container ship, and more—even a green submarine with yellow polka dots—crowd the waters in a representative double-page spread. With the turn of the page, readers see the answer, rendered in jaunty, blocky lettering: “IT’S NOT JUST THE CAPTAIN!” The verse continues, detailing the work of the land-based dispatchers, who sit in an office on the wharf labeled “Harbormaster” as the ferry pulls in to its berth. Support crews for buses, trucks, subways, trains, and planes are also introduced, with Neubecker’s characteristically busy cartoons depicting happy passengers and workers of many different racial and gender presentations; one, a harbormaster, uses a wheelchair. The verse rollicks along as smoothly as these varied vehicles move, carrying readers through concise descriptions of jobs and roles they may never have considered, until they reach the final, exuberant line: “TEAMWORK HELPS THE WORLD TO MOVE!” Picture-book shelves are groaning with celebrations of transportation, but this one stands out in its salutary commitment to shining a spotlight on support teams.

A warmly inclusive addition to the things-that-go genre. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews