YOUR TRUCK

The latest Klassen board book to come off the assembly line allures with the freedom of the road.

The first entry in the Your Things series begins with that most sturdy of vehicular transports. “This is your truck. It is yours to have.” You can have it in a variety of colors, “but let’s choose red for now.” You look at the variety of things your truck can carry, though we’ll stick with just a dog (“He is a good dog”). And while it’s true that you could take your truck anywhere, it’s bedtime now, and the truck is going to sleep. This deviation from the previous Your Places series marks a subtle shift into a more direct form of ownership as Klassen places the power of travel directly into a toddler’s hands with the caveat “But not right now.” When is never specified beyond a vague “tomorrow”; the inherent promise in the book is that when the time is right, you will take your truck wherever you wish to go. A previous adoration of trucks proves unnecessary; this story will engender that love spontaneously. Klassen’s watercolor artwork imbues objects and living creatures alike with wide eyes while scaling everything down to the barest of essentials against pure white backgrounds.

Imagination shifts into high gear as readers maneuver into this empowering tale. Buckle up!