Jack Truck and his best friend Dump Truck Dan are spending the day doing their favourite thing...Smashing and Crashing throughout the whole town! Along the way the meet up with their friends and give us a rollicking tour! But when a mysterious shadow falls over them and a strange voice calls, could the smashing, crashing duo be in trouble? Or has a new friend come to town to join in all the smashing fun?
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Welcome to Jon Scieszka's Trucktown, a brand-new preschool/kindergarten series that will come in more shapes, sizes, and formats than you can shake a bumper at. It's a world where all the characters are trucks, all the stories are action driven, and boys and girls can imagine themselves in all their crazy, loud, funny, creative, excited, full-throttle glory! It's a world where we work at play, and we play at work... and no one's afraid to get dirty or be LOUD! And it all kicks off with Smash! Crash! best friends Jack and Dan are spending their day doing what they do best--smashing and crashing! All the while a strange shadow is following them around every corner... Who is this new addition to Trucktown? What does she want? Rhythmic, rollicking text will get kids' motors running and horns honking with each refrain! This is a book that begs to be read again and again!
Meet the Trucktown Gang
Meet the Trucktown Gang
 Jack Truck Jack is a prankster action hero! He is active, rowdy, messy, loud and goofy. He is the fastest truck and the best-at-truck-sports truck. Jack's work is to play. And he plays, and plays, and plays, and plays. |  Dump Truck Dan Dan is Jack Truck's best friend. He is one strong truck and loves to show off that strength, whether its pushing rocks, loading up dirt, or getting into trouble with Jack. |  Payloader Pete Pete is Dan's brother, and he is loud, rough, tough and competitive! But he's also the most loyal friend a truck could have. As he puts it "I would take a punch in the grill for those guys." |
 Cement Mixer Melvin "I'm worried!" and "I don't want to" are two of Melvin's favorite phrases. He is a loveable worrier, which is good because he LOVES to worry. |  Gabriella Garbage Truck Gabriella knows everyone and everything. She's a social butterfly and maybe bit of a know-it-all, but still a blast to have around. She can always talk about what's going on! And talk... and talk... and... |  Monster Truck Max Max is everything you would expect a monster truck to be. Especially ACTIVE! He is oversized, jacked up, and nitro-boosted to the MAX! He's always getting his wild self into trouble and it's a good thing he's got good friends like Jack and Dan to help him along the way. |
 Grader Kat Sensitive, creative, and mature, Grader Kat is the most artistic truck around. Don't believe it? Check out her tire treads! Her creative ideas and experimental nature make her a great addition to any adventure. |  Wrecker Rosie Rosie is big. Rosie is a wrecker. Rosie is a great big wrecker sweet and clumsy and who lives to bounce about wrecking things. But beneath all that noise and wreckage there is also a very big heart. |  Tow Truck Ted Tow Truck Ted is smart--really smart. He knows more about truck mechanics, repair, history, and even truck mythology than anybody else. But watch out, he's also got a sly side and he's always got a plan. |
 Izzy Ice Cream Truck Izzy is an ice cream truck. He sells ice cream and only ice cream. And he says only one thing--"Do you want ice cream? Do you want ice cream? Do you want ice cream?" |  Hook and Ladder Lucy and Pumper Pat These fire truck twins are responsible, do-gooder citizens. Practically always together, they love doing things the right way. Lucy thinks they are being responsible. Jack and Dan think they’re a little bossy. |  Big Rig Big Rig is a bully. He's a tailgating, horn blasting, black exhaust spewing, license expired, outlaw. And those might be the nicest things you could say about him. The best thing to do with this guy is steer clear. |  Rescue Rita Rita is Lucy and Pat's little sister. And the biggest tag-a-long... She just wants to join in on all. |
About the Author
Jon Scieszka is the creator of Trucktown and the author of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, the Time Warp Trio series, Caldecott Honor Book The Stinky Cheese Man, and many other books that inspire kids to want to read. He has worked as an elementary school teacher and is the founder of a literacy initiative for boys (www.guysread.com).
David Shannon has written and illustrated numerous award winning picture books including Duck on a Bike, the Caldecott Honor Book No David!, How I Learned to be a Pirate, and Good Boy Fergus. He is also one of the collaborative illustrators in Jon Scieszka's Trucktown series. David lives with his wife and his daughter in Los Angeles.
#1 New York Times Best Seller LOREN LONG’s illustrations have received two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and his first picture book, Angela Johnson’s I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for Illustrations and his inspired interpretation of Walt Whitman’s When I Heard Learn’d Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor. A much sought after editorial artist whose work has appeared in Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly, Loren is widely known for the illustrations in Madonna’s #1 New York Times Best Seller Mr. Peabody’s Apples. And Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could. He lives in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, Griffith and Graham.
David Shannon has written and illustrated numerous award winning picture books including Duck on a Bike, the Caldecott Honor Book No David!, How I Learned to be a Pirate, and Good Boy Fergus. He is also one of the collaborative illustrators in Jon Scieszka's Trucktown series. David lives with his wife and his daughter in Los Angeles.
#1 New York Times Best Seller LOREN LONG’s illustrations have received two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and his first picture book, Angela Johnson’s I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for Illustrations and his inspired interpretation of Walt Whitman’s When I Heard Learn’d Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor. A much sought after editorial artist whose work has appeared in Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly, Loren is widely known for the illustrations in Madonna’s #1 New York Times Best Seller Mr. Peabody’s Apples. And Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could. He lives in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, Griffith and Graham.
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More About the Author
Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8th, 1954. He grew up with five brothers, has the same birthday as Peter Sellers and the Virgin Mary, and a sneaking suspicion that the characters in his Dick and Jane reader were not of this world. Those plain facts, plus his elementary school principal dad, Louis, his registered nurse mom, Shirley (who once took Jon's Cub Scout den on a field trip to the prenatal ward), Mad Magazine, four years of pre-med undergrad, "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University, Robert Benchley, five years of painting apartments in New York City, his lovely wife Jeri Hansen who introduced him to Molly Leach and Lane Smith, Green Eggs and Ham, his teenage daughter Casey and almost teenage son Jake, ten years of teaching a little bit of everything from first grade to eighth grade, and the last twenty years of living in Brooklyn...are just some of Jon's answers to the questions, "Where do you get your ideas?" and/or "How did you become a writer?" I don't know, just because, none of your beeswax, and flapdoodle poppycock and balderdash are some more of Jon's answers to questions you can imagine on your own. Jon met up with Lane Smith around 1986 or so, and nothing has been the same since. Their first book, the wiseguy fairy tale retelling, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! was initially rejected by most publishers as "too weird" and "too sophisticated". Published by Viking in 1989, The True Story has now sold over a million copies, been translated into ten languages, and been called a "classic picture book for all ages". Jon and Lane's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) took the world of the picture book a few steps further. Goofing with the conventions of fairy tales and even being a book, The Stinky Cheese Man became a household word, sold another mess of copies in multiple languages, offended a few purists, and still managed to win a Caldecott Honor medal. Math Curse (1995) further stretched the notion of what subjects make good picture books, selling more books faster than either 3 Little Pigs or Stinky Cheese, and winning a whole slew of awards --all for a book full of mathematics.More recently, Jon and Lane have resurrected fables (in the smart, funny, and a little bit wicked way Aesop would have wanted them) in their latest collaboration, Squids Will Be Squids (1998). No telling where they might take the picture book next. Someone once wrote, "Jon Scieszka has forever changed the face of children's literature." And while there is still some confusion over exactly who that someone was, and whether children's literature does, in fact, have a face, most would agree-from The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! to Squids Will Be Squids, since Scieszka put pen to paper, children's literature sure has been...different.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A major hit,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Smash! Crash! (Jon Scieszka's Trucktown) (Hardcover)
As a parent, you're going to wish the story had a little more "something" to it--a little more rhyme, a little more depth (yes, even for a children's book, this is a little shallow). BUT your little guy or girl will fall head over heals for this. This is one of those books kids want read to them again and again and again. Cute art; clever lettering; a so-so story (so be patient when you read it the thousandth time); but a sure-fire hit with the kids who matter most.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
You dont have to look far to understand why kids act as they do with this author around!,
By Geneva101 (Plano, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Smash! Crash! (Jon Scieszka's Trucktown) (Hardcover)
This book is astonishingly bad. Encourages bad manners, behavior that does not respect authority, bully type behavior. Art work is great. Story encourages children to be discourteous, run away when called, ignore requests of others. Don't waste your money here if you are trying to encourage your child to be well behaved and care for others. I would give it less than one star if possible!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Boys who love trucks,
By MeCT (Connecticut) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Smash! Crash! (Jon Scieszka's Trucktown) (Hardcover)
I got this for my 2 year old nephew. He just loves it. Great illustrations and cute story. I would recommend it to anyone who has a little man who loves their trucks!
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