TRUCKS

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)