TRUCK TUNES

The Gardners, creators of the popular YouTube channel Twenty Trucks, which features ditties on everything from dump trucks to street sweepers, compile their favorite lyrics.

In this substantial collection, readers will find songs about both familiar vehicles, like garbage trucks and cement mixers, and lesser-known, high-appeal wheeled machines such as the impressive rock crawler and road zipper, which moves concrete lane dividers. Apart from an introduction and a glossary, the text is composed primarily of lyrics, which do by and large explain what each truck does so that even those unfamiliar with the tunes or the vehicles will understand their purpose. There is no QR code that directs readers to the songs, which would have been helpful for those not already fans of the YouTube channel. Without the music, some of the text feels repetitive (like “Off-Road Racing Truck”), and for the purposes of the book, an edited version of the original lyrics with more photographs than just one per layout would have made it more appealing to younger readers. The glossary does help deepen reader comprehension and is a thoughtful inclusion. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A clunky, bare-bones format that will nevertheless appeal to fans of all things truck.