Truck lovers who've graduated from board book fare will take a fancy to this clever collection, which salutes 14 different vehicles in as many brief rhymes. Cuetara, reprising the succinct structure of her Terrible Teresa and Other Very Short Stories, devotes one spread per truck; each contains four cartoon panels with a neatly hand-lettered line of verse below. The table of contents reveals something for every young trucker's taste: Cuetara waxes rhapsodic over construction gear in "Cement Mixer," rental rides in "Moving Van" and municipal wheels in "Fire Truck" and "Garbage Truck" ("Kids think it's swell,/ except for the smell"). Most profiles show children interacting with these trucks and their drivers; for instance, a three-year-old boy dreams of operating a dump truck, a girl admires the lofty view from a cherry picker and in the title tale, "The crawler crane has gone insane./ Oh my gosh, it's grabbing Jane!/ Look out, Jane is angry now./ She kicks it in the treads, kapow!" The briefest, all of eight words, involves the distracted driver of a red convertible who yammers on his cell phone: "Yak yak!/ Ouch, smack!/ Bad luck!/ Tow truck." For truck aficionados, there's even a pen-and-ink drawing of the featured machine in the upper-right corner of each spread. Cuetera exploits her restrained format to full advantage, showcasing both her pithy wit and inventiveness. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Pres-K-Fourteen vehicles are featured in brief, humorous poems and cartoon illustrations on two-page spreads. A garbage truck is described as, "A tough metal shell.../strong personnel.../Kids think it's swell,/except for the smell," while in "Fire Truck," "The firefighters all looked tired./'Was it a bad one?' I inquired./Oh, yes, as bad as it could be-/a mean old cat in a big, tall tree." Youngsters will appreciate the verses about a busy cement mixer, a roaring ambulance, and a mighty excavator. In each spread, four separate panels illustrate the verses while a carefully rendered silhouette of the particular vehicle appears in the upper corner. The colorful illustrations are filled with smiling children and hard-hatted workers on construction sites. The poems are lighthearted and clever, but it's the trucks that will capture the attention of the intended audience.
Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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