Outside it's cold and wet, the kind of night when puddles grab for the car tires and the colored lights of the stores blur like melted ice cream. Inside the car, Luke is warm and safe and dry, fighting the sleep that dances on his heavy eyelids. There's too much to look at: the slithery line of red tail lights that flash secret messages about what's ahead; the rain that plays hide-and-seek with the windshield wipers, and the flicker of the redbluewhite police lights that turn his brother and sister's faces into people Luke doesn't know.

Nancy Hundal has once again brought us a children's story written from a child's perspective-a little boy's imagination set free by humming tires, the edge of sleep, and a rainy night that has the power to transform the familiar into something magical. Karen Reczuch's vivid pastel drawings glisten like rain on pavement, reflecting a world of light that melts into velvety blackness.