Tough Trucks

Take to the road with a trio of animal truckers. From dump trucks to garbage trucks, there are lots of hard-working vehicles to learn about.

Kathleen Karr - Children's Literature

The "Amazing Machines" collection for tots covers vehicles that roar and grunt, fly and sail, or merely shove and carry. Done up in tidy verse, with characters that borrow quite a bit from Richard Scarry, the page-turners are colorfully illustrated and sport reinforced binding with a fair amount of wear in it. Rabbit, Bird, and Mouse display their stuff driving heavy eighteen-wheeler rigs—not to mention garbage trucks, dump trucks, tankers (carrying milk, of course), and tow trucks for when the others break down. Along the way youngsters get to peek into cabs and truck stops, as well as learn the usefulness of CB radios. A one-page picture dictionary completes the package. The set should be just the ticket for the nursery school market. 2003, Kingfisher, Ages 3 to 5.

Tony Mitton is a widely anthologized children's poet, as well as a teacher and performing poet. His Royal Raps won the 1997 Nottinghamshire Libraries/Dillons Children's Book Award. His recent collection of poetry, Plum, won the Publishers Weekly 2003 Cuffies Award for Best Book of Poetry. Tony teamed with illustrator Ant Parker on several books, including Dazzling Diggers, Roaring Rockets, and Terrific Trains. Ant Parker studied drawing and printing at the Bath Academy of Art in England and has taught papermaking, printing and bookbinding workshops for children.