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Construction trucks. School buses. Airplanes. You name it, kids can’t get enough of it. Here are a few of our favorite books of Things That Go ... Read the rest of this post

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Monotony!

Boredom!

Interstate!

 

Fortunately, I don’t have to drive the interstate very often anymore. When I find myself stuck between white lines for a long drive, my mind melts into mush and I fantasize about escaping the madness in a flying car. There are two things I’ve always wanted to do while driving on the interstate. First, I’d like to drive through a rest area at full speed and just wave at all the shocked people getting out for a stretch. Second, I’d like to go through a truck weigh station.

Even a dolt like me realizes the first dream is too dangerous and I would never do it. But the second… hmmm.

I found myself so bored on a recent business trip through South Carolina that I thought it might be a good time to check out a weigh station. According to my calculations, I had plenty of time to get to my appointment and I always find South Carolinians to be extraordinarily kind. So when the exit sign appeared for All Trucks to be weighed, I followed a dingy yellow 18-wheeler off the road. I drive a pick-up – which is a truck, after all.

The truck behind me started honking immediately – impatient, I guess. Nearly deafened by his horn, I waited my turn in the line. They go relatively quickly and I was on the scale in no time. When I got there, an angry looking lady in brown was waiting for me.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she called angrily. “Just keep moving.”

“But it said, ‘all trucks’,” I countered with a smile, using my stupid-card, which I keep readily available in my wallet (and an extra copy in the glove box).

“It means big rigs, tractor-trailers…” she yelled in exasperation. “That’s the only thing we weigh here. Just keep moving please.”

I pushed my luck. I was here already, might as well get my money’s worth. “But I’ve been thinking I might have put on a few pounds lately – not exercising and all. Can you weigh me anyway?”

Her sense of humor as drab as her uniform, she was done with me. “Sir, I am a Highway Patrol Officer. If you don’t move along I will deal with you as such.”

“Goodbye, ma’am,” I said as I quickly obeyed.

 

And there I thought my experiment was over. I thought…

The officer must have been the forgiving type – I didn’t get pulled over for being stupid. However, the trucker behind me with the air horn took exception to my little prank. About two miles down the road, he was close enough to my truck bed to be considered cargo. I started to get nervous, but figured he wouldn’t keep at it too long if I slowed down to obey the posted fifty-five MPH speed limit. I was wrong. In fact, I think they still actually might have one of those CB networks they used in the 70’s to call a convoy.

I say that because within a mile, I looked ahead of me and another truck was going even slower than me. No worries. I started to pass only to find a blue rig to my left going the same speed as the impediment in front. Talked about hemmed in. I was stuck… and going fifty miles per hour all the way through South Carolina. My ‘plenty of time’ evaporated and I nearly missed my meeting entirely. My little prank must have broken some kind of trucker code.

Some stupid ideas should stay just that… as ideas.

The next time I get bored, I’ll stop at Cracker Barrel for a book on tape… and I won’t park anywhere near the big rigs.

Filed under: Learned Along the Way

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©the enchanted easel 2014

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Enter to win an autographed copy of Mighty Dads, story by award-winning author Joan Holub and illustrations by James Dean, creator of the bestselling "Pete the Cat" books. Giveaway begins April 15, 2014, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends May 14, 2014, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

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By Nina Schuyler, The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 9, 2012

What is it about boys and wheels? Yes, I’m making a gross generalization and relying far too heavily on anecdotal evidence, but I don’t see our neighbors with daughters outside at 6:30 am on Garbage Day, watching the parade of garbage trucks go by. All to the delight and squeals of my 14 month old son, a son who bolts up in bed when he hears the first rumble of the trucks. A son whose bedroom rug is decorated with things that go– airplanes, fire trucks, cars, trains, and helicopters—and it is the wheel, that black round object, to which he points and drools.

In honor of boys and things that go, here are a handful of new books that celebrate the wheel.

Picture Books

Trains Go

By Steve Light

Steve Light, the author and illustrator of Trains Go knows the allure of trains. It’s not just the rattle and clang or the choo choo or whoosh, it’s the length. How the train just keeps going by, car after car, as if it will never end. Light uses watercolor and black ink and beautifully illustrates trains –freight and diesel and speed and more. When you open the page, the train stretches to two feet. That’s a lot of train!

Ages 1-5 | Publisher: Chronicle Books | January 25, 2012

Train Man

By Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

In Train Man, by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha, we enter the realm of a boy’s imagination as he considers what he’ll be when he grows up. A train man, without a doubt, with a train man hat and overalls. As the story progresses, his toy train turns into a big engine and he is at the helm, traveling up the mountain and back down again, then finally into his room with his track and miniature trains.

Ages 2-5 | Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.| March 13, 2012

Machines Go to Work in the City

By William Low

Since I received this book a couple weeks ago, my son has picked it up probably fifty times. (You’ll see why in a second). William Low’s Machines Go to Work in the City opens with a garbage truck. “Vroooom! Here comes the garbage truck, making its run! When the truck makes its last pickup, are the garbage collectors done for the day?” The page on the left folds out or up or down to give you the answer: “No, they must go to the landfill to empty the trash.” (And then I launch into a discussion of how we want to try to recycle because look at that yucky landfill. Never too early to start, I suppose). That’s the pattern of the book as it moves through commuter trains, vacuum trucks, tower cranes and airplanes. After the umpteenth reading, my son now says very clearly and distinctly the word, “No.”

Ages 2-6 | Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.| June 5, 2012

Everything Goes On Land 

By Brian Biggs

Everything Goes On Land by Brian Biggs illustrates the entire page, using lots of color and capturing the sense of a city with its busyness and packed streets. We move through the city with a little boy and his father, who is driving. They see cars, trucks, RVs, bikes, buses, motorcycles, subway and trains. The book is interspersed with detailed explanations about particular vehicles. We even get to learn about how an electric car works. Biggs has a wonderful sense of the silly, letting the dogs and birds talk. He’s also built in a sort of I Spy game with birds wearing hats and random things that just don’t belong.

Ages 4-8 | Publisher: HarperCollins | September 13, 2011

A Chapter Book

Stealing Air

By Trent Reedy

Trent Reedy in Stealing Air has a keen sense of what might appeal to a young boy– not only things that go, but boys who build rocket bikes and real airplanes in secret sheds.( Yes, a bike that with a flip of a switch zooms down the road.) Brian, a newcomer to Iowa, makes friends with Max, who shares with him his secret—in a hidden shed, he’s building a real airplane that looks like a flying motorcycle. But Max is afraid of heights so he solicits help from Brian and Alex, the popular kid from school, to serve as pilot and co-pilot.  If the plane is ever to get off the ground, the boys have to overcome fights at home, at school, and a bully named Frankie.

Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. | October 1, 2012

Nina Schuyler’s first novel, “The Painting,” was nominated for the Northern California Book Award and was named a ‘Best Book’ by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her next novel, “The Translator,” will be published by Pegasus Books in New York, Spring, 2013. She is the fiction editor for www.ablemuse.com and teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco. 

Original article: Kids Car Books & Things That Go: Airplanes, Fire Trucks, & Trains. Oh, My!

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

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If you know a child who loves to stop and watch trucks when they drive by, you absolutely need to get them a copy of Tons of Trucks  (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), a new picture book by Sue Fliess and Betsy Snyder.

This sturdy book lets small truck enthusiasts learn about different types of trucks and see what the do. Then, they can pull and lift the tabs and flaps to see the trucks in action. It holds up well to repeated readings and has a catchy, rhyming text.

Today’s reviewer, Aidan, is definitely the target market for this book, and he and his dad had a lot of fun reading the book together.

Take it away, Aidan!

—————————

Today’s reviewer: Aidan

Age: 3.5

I like: Fire trucks. Monster trucks. Mixer trucks and trains. Cheese. Playing at parks. And, I like doggies, too.

This book was about: Trucks and animals.

The best part was when: Pulling the monster truck up and then seeing the party on the back of the fire truck.

I laughed when: I saw the party on the back of the fire truck.

I was worried when: There’s nothing to worry about. But, why is there a motorbike on the car transporter. That’s silly.

This book taught me: Tar is sticky.

Other kids reading this book should watch for: All the pully, spinny, up-and-down things.

Three words that best describe this book: “Trucks.” “Pulling.” “Fun.”

My favorite line or phrase in this book is: “Honk! Go fast trucks.”

You should read this book because: You can read it and play it, too!

—————————

Thank you, Aidan!

If you’d like to learn more about author Sue Fliess, you can visit this website. Or read this interview about Tons of Trucks and her writing journey.

If you’d like to learn more about illustrator Betsy Snyder, you can visit her website. Or read this interview about another book she created.

And, if you have a favorite truck story, share it in the comments.

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As the co-organizer of the KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month blog, I've been very busy formatting, posting, and reading all of the great guest posts this month.  (If you haven't checked it out, you're missing some great essays and reviews.)  As a consequence, I've been neglecting to post often this month, but today I have a quick rundown of three titles that grabbed my attention this past week:

• Fogliano, Julie. 2012. And then it's spring.  Illustrated by Erin E. Stead. New York: Roaring Brook.

I loved this book from the minute I saw the cover staring at me from my book delivery bag.  It's simply perfect.  Betsy Bird, of Fuse #8, named it to her early Caldecott predictions list yesterday.  Get yourself a copy if you can.

• Sutton, Sally. 2012. Demolition. Illustrated by Brian Lovelock. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Bright colors, realistic trucks, repeated refrains, rhymes with perfect rhythm - a storytime book doesn't get much better than this.  If you know any small children at all, you know one who will like Demolition.











And finally, a curious addition to my bag 'o books,

• Bunting, Eve. 2011. Ballywhinney Girl. Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The hauntingly beautiful cover art caught my eye, and with St. Patrick's Day approaching, I was on the lookout for anything Irish to add to a display of Irish-themed books.  Ballywhinney Girl, however, was not what I was expecting.  It's the story of Maeve, a young Irish girl, and her grandfather, who accidentally uncover a body while digging in the peat bogs near their home.  After they report the find to the local authorities, it draws the attention of news reporters, archaeologists, and scientists, who determine that the body is that of a thousand-year-old mummified girl - a girl much like Maeve, herself.  Maeve naturally find the whole process unsettling.  Elegantly told in verse, this is a fictional story that, according to the Author's Note, happens more often than one might think.  It clearly, and rightfully, is unsettling to author, Eve Bunting, as well.  Whether your young listener will find it unsettling as well, 

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Add this book to your collection: Everything Goes: On Land

Have you read this book? Rate it:
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

©2011 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

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SEYMOUR'S BACK 
FOR MORE ADVENTURE!
Seymour the Semi - Space Truckin'

I am currently working on 
Author Scott Spoonmore's second book
in the Seymour the Semi Series.
Gotta love a tractor trailer that can
haul in the Milky Way! More sketches 
coming soon.

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Usually the boys I babysit for aren't too interested in my books and writing. But when the topic was TRUCKS, all that changed. The four-year old lugged down a volume the size of an old encyclopedia (all devoted to trucks) and began eagerly turning the pages and explaining the various vehicles. The ten-year old supplied the names KIDS use, and some of the sound effects.

Soon I had quite a long list of truck names and sounds, and both boys helped me pick the ones that would be the most popular with kids....but the ten-year old wasn't sure we had made the right choices.

"I know! To find out what kids really like, let's look at Mitchell's trucks."

It was quite a collection, and encompassed most of the house, and, with his brother's Leggo creations and planes, the entire dining room table.








There were far too many to include (these pictures do not do justice to the range of the collection, but you get the idea), so we asked him to show us his favorites.



By the end of the afternoon, I was confident that I'd made the right choices, and liked the names of the trucks and Mitchell's onomatopoetic sound effects, too. At home, I made my final selection and then, while trying to get the sounds right, found this amazing Web site: the sounds of every truck on our list and many more. Here, for your listening pleasure, is a plain bulldozer. There are many more exotic ones.

On Monday, or maybe as I write this, my agent is sending the ms. out to editors -- but whether anyone buys it or not, I had a lot of fun researching it and writing it.

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When I was a kid my two favorite things were monkeys and trucks. Here's why.

Monkeys

1. Their acrobatic tree top agility: Would be great for evading an angry older brother.

2. Prehensile tails:  A stealthy way to exchange top secret notes to the kid behind you in class. Hanging from a tail would be a great way to impress the girls on recess who are  much better on the monkey bars. 

3. Thumbs on their feet:  It would make multitasking much more effective. Endless possibilities for shadow puppetry.

4. How similar we look and act: They look and act like little hairy humans (poo flinging aside).

 Trucks:

1. They are big and powerful.

2. Truckers: Looked kind of like big hairy apes.  They stayed up all night driving across the country and had cool handles like, Big Joe.

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The Trucker by Barbara Samuels

Ever since he was very little, Leo was a trucker.  He loved trucks, playing with them, reading books about them, and was distracted by all of the trucks outside when he went on a walk with his mother.  Unfortunately, while he was looking at a toy fire truck in a store window, his mother was looking at something else.  And that’s how they got a cat, that they named Lola.  Though Leo’s mother got Lola a brush, a cat bed, and a toy, she was much more interested in Leo and his trucks.  Leo ignored her and tried to play without her.   Until one day when the toy fire trucks were trying to stop a blaze, Lola jumped in and saved Leo’s stuffed bunny.  Leo made Lola his deputy and from then on out they were truckers together.

The mix of pet and trucks here works well.  It is a truck book that has more of a story than most, giving lots of colorful truck eye-candy but also mixing in the frustration of having a bothersome pet.  Samuels nicely mixes in visual humor (even a scene in the bathroom for gleeful giggles) with the humor of the text.  Her art is bright and vibrant, set against white backgrounds that really make it pop visually. 

This is a truck book that can be happily used at a story time, something that can be hard to find!  Happily it can be enjoyed by children who are not truck-crazy as well.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar Straus Giroux.

• Also reviewed by Madigan Reads.

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Once again my bags of books are overflowing! Here are a few new titles worthy of mention:

Jacobs, Paul DuBois and Jennifer Swender. 2010. Fire Drill. Ill. by JuyVoun Lee. New York: Holt.

A picture perfect, non-threatening, multicultural, rhyming book about fire drills.  What more can one ask for? A must-have for every Kindergarten teacher.

Elya, Susan Middleton. No More, Por Favor. 2010. Ill. by David Walker. New York: Putnam.

Deep in the rain forest - selva, so green,

lives Papagayo, an eating machine.
"Here, Bebe Parrot, papaya is yummy."
"No!" says the baby. "No more in my tummy!
Papaya for breakfast, for lunch and la cena.
Too many times in a row no es buena!"

Simple ink sketches, highlighted with minimal coloration tell the simple story of Henry, who, "more than anything else in the whole wide world," wanted a dog.  It is also the story of a duck, to whom

Nobody ever wrote. Nobody ever called. Nobody ever e-mailed,

that is, until he created "The Perfect Disguise."  Funny, touching, and hilariously illustrated!
                            

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Troy Truck Sleeping

© Mandy Hedrick

Color pencil

Please visit Mandy's blog or website www.MandyHedrick.com

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I put this on Twitter last week while I was trying to figure out how to get permission to post one of these photos. The link got buzzed around really speedily and the photos were everywhere. I figured I’d drop it here for posterity too. Aren’t these trucks great looking? Another neat thing from Johnson County Library System (KS).

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Dewey: 612.8








Machines Go to Work by William Low, Henry Holt, 2009

William Low brought a long-gone train station to life in his book Old Penn Station. Here, Low brings us working vehicles such as fire trucks, helicopters, backhoes, container ships, cement trucks and even railroad crossing signs that vibrate with color and strength.

This is not Little Toot, the anthropomorphic tugboat nor Thomas the Tank Engine. Low's brush strokes do suggest a presence and power as his machines rumble across the two page spreads. The reader can see the helicopter's rotors whirl and the front tire of a cement mixer deflating. Illustrations open with full page flaps to extend the reach of a backhoe or the length of the fire truck's ladder.

The narrative is set up to suggest a problem for each machine which is then gently resolved as the flap unfolds. A fire truck roars past cherry trees in full bloom, not because of a fire but to rescue a cat. A news helicopter races to the scene of a traffic tie-up but happily, an accident is not the cause of the problem.

The last two pages unfold to present a 4 page an aerial view of the city in eye-popping color. All the machines are visible from on high as they go about their work. It is fun to try and find them all. At the end of the book, small paintings of the machines are labeled along with some brief facts. The parts of the Cement Mixer are labeled: the water tank, the cement chute, the engine exhaust. The cement drum is "like a big mixing bowl. Just add sand, gravel, portalnd cement, water and mix."

Low paints with realistic and technical accuracy. People are there, operating these machines and giving the reader a sense of scale as well as the machine's purpose.

This is a "must-have" for school libraries and for young truck-boat-train-heavy machine enthusiasts.

Trained in traditional oil technique, Low used Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter to create this book. He demonstrates how he works in this series of videos.

Fascinating.




Part 2

Part 3

Nonfiction Monday round up is at MotherReader today.

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This is one of the many optical illusion trucks that have been painted in Germany. So tell me...if you're a big beer drinker, what would your first instinct be? Swerve around it or try to grab on and POP the cap off? :)

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One of the types of questions we get a lot in Ask MetaFilter is “what book should I read on XYZ topic?” It’s one of those questions that the hive mind is actually good at answering because it’s just brainstorming and list generation by a self-selected group of people, not the “do I need to get this wound looked at?” sort in which you really shoudl ask a doctor. So, someone on MetaFilter decided to organize these questions into a wiki page. MetaFilter has our own wiki where a lot of information that may not need its own home on the site can reside, and where users can contribute content directly. The page is called ReadMe and contains a categorized list of over 650 topics on what to read, linking directly to the Ask MetaFilter thread where the topic was discussed. There’s even a section about libraries. It still needs a bit of tweaking, but what an awesome resource and a good concrete example of the nifty aggregating effects of blogs, and the “anyone can build something” effects of wikis.

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