Get to Work, Trucks! by Don Carter

Get to Work, Trucks! by Don Carter

Rating: 5 hard-working stars

Today is Lorelei's fourth day of school.  And she's home sick.  I'm not completely surprised because she looked extra tired yesterday and, as a first-time-school-goer, she's going to catch everything this year that her classmates have.  Woo hoo!  I'm going to stock up at Kleenex and Tylenol and chicken soup now...

I was planning on taking Ben to the park and library, which are placed wonderfully close to each other in our town.  But with a sick Lorelei, could I still go?  What a dilemma: spreading germs vs. staying in the house all day...getting some fresh air vs. staying in the house all day...getting new books for a quiet afternoon vs. staying in the house all day.  I guess you know what we chose.  (In my defense I washed their hands with soap and water before going into the library!  We only stayed 5 minutes!)

Lorelei was pretty cheery after a missed breakfast, and she insisted that the park was a good idea.  We stayed about 20 minutes and did our civic duty by taking along a towel and drying all the slides and tunnels from last night's rain.  We went to the library to return our old books and pick up those on hold for us, plus a few more that I knew Lorelei would look at again and again, and then headed home.  The moment we got home Lorelei said she wanted to go upstairs, so I took her now-de-germed sheets out of the dryer, made her bed and tucked her in.  Ben didn't even want to go upstairs with us--a bag full of new library books is heaven for him, so he stayed downstairs pulling each book out and, one by one, "reading" them.  

Ben takes out all the new library books.



Three paragraphs in, and I'll get to this book: we've had it in our possession for about 3 hours and I've already read it 4 times.  I think that's a good sign.  It's really not a whole lot more than your basic truck book, with two twists that I like:

First, Don Carter uses foam board, dry wall, and acrylics to make his illustrations, so they look really different and bulky and strong, something that is just perfect for a little boy's book.  (The background also looks like frosting, so many I'm just hankering for some cake right now.)

Second, after the trucks get into a line and proceed in caravan to the work site, they all stop for a turtle that is trying to cross the road.  That strikes a chord for us, as we live in a fairly rural area where turtle crossings occur.  When my husband or I stop to help the turtle along, we always put the turtle's now-hidden head up to the kids' windows so they can see.  I'm sure the turtle is not thrilled at this ("Just put me down on the other side of the road, you fool!" he's probably muttering) but Lorelei and Ben like it.

A great little book for Ben, whose vehicle-related interests already have broadened my mind.