He’s dirty; he’s huge; he eats disgusting garbage; and he’s gleefully stinky. (“Who am I? The garbage truck, that’s who.”) What preschool-aged boy could resist the terrific title or the ten-wheeled force behind this anthropomorphized garbage truck narrator from the McMullans (Papa’s Song, 2000, etc.), a husband-and-wife team who did their own garbage truck research with the New York City Department of Sanitation. The instantaneously appealing cover announces the title in huge red letters with the unnamed, grinning truck ready to roll for a hard night’s work “eating” bags of trash. But that’s not all he eats: he also chomps through an entire alphabet soup of trash items, including some guaranteed gigglers such as dirty diapers, moldy meatballs, and smelly sneakers. The first-person story unfolds in a loud, brash tone, with lots of sound effects and descriptions of the truck’s operational procedures, augmented by creative type treatments and a superb design that always shows the truck moving through the night from left to right. Watercolor-and-ink illustrations in a dark palette help create the moody nighttime setting, illuminated by the irresistible influence of this nocturnally noshing narrator’s personality. Preschoolers and kindergartners who are fascinated by trucks and trash will eat this up. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-029848-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
Engines won’t be the only thing roaring their approval when this book hits storytime.
Who needs sanity when you’ve got family?
The title character of Elbow Grease (2018) and his family of Demolition Derby trucks return to face an all-new competitor. Once again, ’Bo is feeling inadequate next to his fan-favorite brothers. Despite Mel the Mechanic’s encouragement—he’s “the best at getting better”—he wants to be noticed. But instead, he notices someone unavoidable. Motozilla, the monster machine that turns trucks “into crunch sandwiches,” is currently undefeated. Trouble is, you’d need a truck with an array of skills to take him down. Thinking fast, ’Bo makes the wild and somewhat improbable suggestion that he and his brothers join together to form a single supertruck. Will it be enough to take down this bully? Quips, jests, and teamwork are the name of the game as pro wrestler Cena improves on his writing in this second outing, which demonstrates that individual glory falls in the face of concentrated cooperation. Rollicking, radical art portrays the battle in all its gritty glory, mud and twisted metal galore. Human crowds show a diverse range of races and genders, and the trucks’ keeper, Mel, has light-brown skin and wears glasses.
Engines won’t be the only thing roaring their approval when this book hits storytime. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7353-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Captioned by Prince’s very brief, loosely rhymed commentary (“Wheels whiz, wheels whir. / Wheels carry travelers.”), Laroche’s expert paint-and-cut-paper collages, on a variety of page layouts, depict all sorts of people using wheels of all sizes at work and play. For “Wheels help to make us go,” they are attached to wagon, wheelchair, stroller, car and bike. They can be spinning on playgrounds (“wheels spin”) and windmills; propelling a helicopter (“Wheels twirl”), inline skates (“Wheels roll”) swinging beneath a tree branch, spinning within machinery or, in the most spectacular of the scenes, “Wheels soar into the sky” as a Ferris wheel carries bright-colored cars upside down and over. Wheel this in after or instead of Shelley Rotner’s photographically illustrated Wheels Around (1995), and leave preschool audiences’ heads a-spin. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: May 22, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-56307-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2006
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