These neatly skillful rhymes and creative, detailed collages will delight the youngest of truck aficionados. There’s no real story here, just lines of trucks moving on their way, described by size and action (“Heavy trucks. Light trucks. Whizzing-through-the-night trucks”), by function (“Ice-cream trucks. Fire trucks. Carpenters-for-hire trucks”), or by noise (“Trucks that rumble, roar and shriek. Trucks that putter, groan and creak”). Real-life road maps and patterned paper comprise many of the backgrounds as various trucks drive up, down, and across the pages; twice the entire book needs to be turned sideways to follow curving and diagonal roads. Full of detail yet never too busy, the collages can be glanced at quickly or perused at length. Careful readers will notice that many drivers have an unusually strong connection with their particular truck’s cargo—the Arctic Plow snowplow, for example, is driven by a penguin, the flatbed peanut truck by an elephant, the cement truck by a statue, the “Cash or Charge!” money truck by a rhinoceros. The nature of connection between truck, cargo, and driver varies, offering interesting questions to readers in the mood to ponder puns and products; for those who just want rhymes and trucks, this will be a quick, joyful, and often-requested read. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7614-5124-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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Sutton’s latest is a truck-lover’s dream come true—repetition, rhyme and onomatopoeia form the text, while construction trucks vie for readers’ attention in the illustrations. The result is a wonderfully noisy look at how roads are built. From a line on a map and an empty field to the finished road complete with lights and signs, youngsters will be able to follow all the steps, learning all the vehicles that take part in the process (a final page introduces readers to each one). “Pack the ground. Pack the ground. / Roll one way, then back. / Make the roadbed good and hard. / Clang! Crunch! Crack!” Lovelock’s debut certainly makes an impression. His pigmented ink illustrations keep the focus on the machines and the individual parts they play in building the road. The level of detail matches the text’s intended audience—enough to satisfy, not so much as to overwhelm. Pave the way to this book’s shelf; perfect for read-alouds, it will be a hit whether shared with a group or one-on-one. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3912-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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Little ones can explore a day in the life of a rubber-covered, audio-enabled tractor.
The “5 noisy parts!” promised on the cover are powered by a battery embedded in the back of the book, the compartment securely screwed shut. Youngsters are prompted by the text to press various parts of the tractor to make interesting sound effects, such as an engine starting then chugging, a horn, and tire noise on muddy or rocky terrain. A large, tractor-shaped die-cut hole in every page allows children to access the vehicle on every double-page spread but leaves the left-hand pages dominated by that tractor-shaped hole. Farm animals make their signature sounds via speech bubble (horses, chicks, and cows, to name a few) along with other critters offering suggestions about which buttons on the tractor to press. For additional play value, a ladybug and a caterpillar can be spotted on every double-page spread. Labels for most of the animals appear in a clear font along with other farm-centric vocabulary words: pitchfork, seedlings, trough. Elliott’s art is busy, but the simple, eye-catching patterns and graphically clean lines in bright colors will appeal to the audience. While this offering is perfect for toddlers, the extensive warnings in the fine print on the back of the book about what may happen if the button battery is swallowed should scare adults into being vigilant. Thankfully, there is an on/off switch allowing for toggling between a quiet and noisy reading experience.
Grown-ups be warned: Young fingers will delight in pressing the tractor’s buttons (and yours!) over and over. (Novelty board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68010-669-5
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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