A dump truck, a hole in the road, a bit of counting practice—all give post-toddlers plenty of reason to toot their horns in this dog-gone lively episode from the creators of Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo (1999). “ ‘Help! Please help!’ ” the driver pleads, “ ‘Does anyone know / how to make / my stuck truck go?’ ” With big, bright oils over sand and plaster, Kirk depicts an all-dog (but not all canine: see below) cast of passing motorists lining up to lend a paw. But not even one, two, three, four, five roaring engines can budge the truck, until at long last a tow truck rumbles up to add the needed oomph. That—and the fact that all along a horde of gleeful prairie dogs has been surreptitiously offloading the truck’s load of mouthwatering bones. Featuring the deepest pothole since the one that snared Judy Hindley’s Big Red Bus (1995), this gives The Enormous Turnip and like tales an updated setting. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7868-0534-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Categories: CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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Listeners will quickly take up the percussive chorus—“Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy town! Is the trash truck full yet? NO”—as they follow burly Mr. Gilly, the garbage collector, on his rounds from park to pizza parlor and beyond.
Flinging cans and baskets around with ease, Mr. Gilly dances happily through streetscapes depicted with loud colors and large, blocky shapes; after a climactic visit to the dump, he roars home for a sudsy bath.
Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches Eve Merriam’s Bam Bam Bam (1995), also illustrated by Yaccarino, for sheer verbal and visual volume. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027139-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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With a tiger at the wheel, the big purple bus rolls all over town, picking up a menagerie of passengers from sheep (“BAAAH, BAAAH, BAAAH”) to vipers—get it? — (“HISS, HISS, HISS”) to skunks (“SSSS, SSSS, SSSS”) before disgorging its dismayed human riders (“HELP! HELP! HELP!”) at an outdoor party. Though wild creatures waddle, tramp, or slither aboard by troops there's always room for more in Karas’s (Raising Sweetness, 1999, etc.) gleeful paint-and-paper collage scenes. The scene on the bus is bound to provoke a great reaction and reading (or honking) along is inevitable. It's a frolicsome spin on the familiar play rhyme, and a surefire alternative or follow-up to Maryann Kovalski's Wheels on the Bus (1987) or Paul Zelinsky's classic popup version (1990). Hop onboard. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-5952-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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