Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton

Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton, illustrated by Valeria Petrone

Rating: 5 stars

I just finished up my review of A Fly Went By , where I explained how, if you read this book to your kids, they will soon have a few vocabulary words that, while inevitable, are not exactly desirable.  Words such as kill, whip, and gun.  So maybe that's not the best book choice out there.

You should read this book to your child for the exact opposite reason--to add the word "hero" to his or her vocabulary.  Shouldn't all kids know it as soon as possible?  In this simple tale, a school bus gets stuck on a rainy and snowy day (it's called "wintry mix" here in the DC area) and Red Truck comes to rescue it.  "Splishy-splashy wet HOORAY! / Our hero for a rainy day... / is RED TRUCK!"

The friendly illustrations, while very cute, do crack me up a little.  Can you imagine the truck that would be required to rescue a school bus in those conditions in real life?  A Ford 250, or some gas guzzler, dude car like that.  Now that you've got that vision in your head, glance at the cover of the book.  Look at those dinky tires!  That just makes me smile, though I didn't share this little joke with the kids...I don't want it to be me who spoils the fun.