Rescue Vehicles

April 1, 2021

PreS-Gr 1-Adorable, smiling big machines invite kids to learn more about construction, rescue, and farm vehicles, as well as some seriously big trucks. Labeled illustrations highlight important aspects of each big machine and the playful language is engaging and exciting, just begging to be read aloud. These books fall into a gray area between fiction and nonfiction known as "informational fiction"-they contain researched, factual information about a topic, but also have some fictional elements (think along the lines of Joanna Cole's "The Magic School Bus" franchise). Those fictional elements in this case are embodied by faces and quotes attributed to the machines, which are fun for kids to imagine, but not the best idea to group in with nonfiction in a time when librarians are fighting on the forefronts of fake news. VERDICT They're cute books that will see a lot of circulation, but few would classify them among nonfiction titles.

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