Another good old truck book; they never come amiss.
Newcomer Sayres hits plenty of sweet notes with this tribute to the trucks of our world, singing them off to sleep in comforting couplets. “Where do diggers sleep at night? / Do they dream of holes they dug?” Children's identification with these beasts of the road and worksite is swift and complete. Dump trucks, fire trucks, car transporters, garbage trucks: “Where do garbage trucks sleep / when they’re done collecting trash? / Do their dads sniff their load and say, / ‘Pee-yew—time to take a bath’?” So there is a touch of low comedy, too, as well as the kind of inclusive generosity that welcomes monster trucks into their midst. Plus a natty tongue-twister to hurry along those nodding off to sleep: “Do their flashing fire-red beacons / make for super-bright night-lights?” Slade’s artwork is dessert rich, with great soupy smiles and droopy eyes, backdrops of small towns here and small cities there, all under blueberry-stained night skies. For all the heavy lifting, this book works well as a lullaby, the illustrations shifting neatly, if predictably, at the end to a little boy’s room and its bevy of toy trucks.
Trucks can be big and noisy and moderately terrifying. Caught right, as here—what’s not to love? (Picture book. 3-6)
