This Truck [Large Print]

Transportation-minded author Paul Collicutt ("This Train," "This Plane") keeps things moving in this better than expected book about all kinds of trucks. He cleverly engages his toddler or early grade school audience by showing them a picture with which they can identify--A boy in a sandbox playing with a truck. Then, Collicutt ups the interest level by immediately showing captioned pictures of real working trucks. Notice how he sequences the first three pages: He begins with the toy truck ("This truck is small."), then to a logging truck (This truck is big."), ending with an extremely tall truck with trees in its container ("This truck is enormous."). Collicut presents similar contrasts throughout the book, such as a truck that pours out salt on the lefthand page, and a truck sweeps up litter on the right; an old truck that's "overloaded," contrasted with a large truck that "has no load at all;" a truck that "crawls through the desert" versus a fire truck that "races through the city." The varied selection of trucks, and the succinct descriptions keep things simple but interesting. I especially like Collicut's vigorous illustrations: The trucks look muscular and energetic, and boldly colored backgrounds give them a context. He's especially talented with blue and purple shades, at times giving them an almost luminescent glow. THe book has a big "WOW!" factor, and is suitable for individual or small group presentations. In addition, the book's short sentences and word repetition helps beginning readers. Mr. Collicutt doesn't even forget his adult audience: The front endpapers show small, labeled pictures of historic trucks, including "Labatt's Streamliner (Canada, 1948), a Sentinel diesel DV46T coal dump truck (U.K., 1955), and a Ford Model T fire engine (U.S.A, 1919); the back endpapers show some unusual modern trucks (e.g., Japan's Komatsu D575A-2 Super Dozer, the Ford Big Foot 4 X 4 "Monster Truck", the Liebherr 240-ton giant dump truck from Germany). This exciting book for the truck fan is beautifully produced on sturdy paper.