Alphabet Trucks

August 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-Hardworking trucks zoom across the pages of this vocabulary-rich concept book. Each spread features two trucks in a rhymed couplet that occasionally trips the tongue with clunky rhyme and meter, and while it will take practice to read the book aloud smoothly for storytime, this is not a major problem. From apple truck to ore truck to zipper truck, young vehicle enthusiasts will find something to excite them in this attractive abecedarian offering. There are some unusual trucks here, and that makes the book stand out from the everyday vehicle offering, as do O'Rourke's retro-feel oil and acryclic renditions. Each truck sports a letter in a lively font, and the pages feature multicultural men, women, and children. The pages are nicely designed, with plenty of space for the trucks and the letters to shine. A fun choice for letter recognition and vocabulary building.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2013
Another new alphabet book--and focused on trucks? Yep. So put on your hard hats and get ready to roll with these 26 hardworking trucks featured in rhyming verse. Trucks are magnets for little boys, and this convoy will both delight and introduce them to unusual ones. The alphabetic lineup has some obvious ones, like D for dump truck and P for pickup truck, but most of the vehicles will be new to fans, and many have surprising jobs. C is for cargo, G is for grapple, K is for knuckle-boom, L is for lowboy, O is for ore, Q is for quint (a truck with hose, tank, ladders and pump), V is for vacuum and X is for X-ray truck. Oils and acrylics illustrate the rhymes with graphic simplicity, incorporating multiple letters into the scenes: I is for ice cream truck, and the cones are "I" shapes. The letters are paired two to a spread across the gutter, interacting with each other: The snowplow truck and tow truck form a snowy scene. Gear up, as this is bound to be a hit. From apple truck to zipper truck, "Day and night. / just watch and see. / Trucks work hard / from A to Z." Vroom, vroom! (Picture book. 3-6)

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