THE CRAZY CRAWLER CRANE

Cuetara follows Terrible Teresa (1997) with a collection of four-frame, two-page stories about the trucks, buses, cherry- pickers, and other heavy machinery toddlers love. The stories are fast-paced and always pointed: “Yak yak!/Ouch, smack!/Bad luck!/Tow truck” is the tale of woe befalling a driver too intent on his car phone. Other stories involve a cat-up-the-tree fire-truck rescue, an excavator with an appetite for dirt, a tribute to garbage trucks, a paean to delivery vans, and more. Cuetera’s cartoonish kids add just the right amount of zing to these tales. For preschoolers and their love affairs with big rigs, this collection is a valentine with treads. (Picture book. 3-7)