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| Lttle Blue Truck Fan Club |
Little Blue Truck
By
I know that I don’t normally do reviews on children’s
books, but this Christmas I came across a book that has taken our house by
storm. Little Blue Truck is a story
about a friendly little blue pick up truck and a big yellow dump truck, along
with a few barnyard animals. None of the
characters are really big on long speeches and even big on words. Each of the animals know what they say, the
little blue truck says “Beep”, and the big Dump says “HONK”. But what is most important is that they have
a lot to say about how to treat other people in kindness, through action.
As an adult, I can talk all day about a children’s book,
but I had two young readers at Christmas that provided me with a review that I
could not have otherwise imagined.
Reader One – Dakota, age two.
When I first found this book,
I bought it for my young nephew who I had never met. He is a shy two year old
and a man of very few words. After
reading through the book, I loved the story and loved the bright illustrations
that filled the pages with life that a pre-schooler can comprehend. The day I introduced Dakota to Little
Blue Truck, his doe eyes widen with the reading of the first page. The normally silent young man immediately
started to repeat the sounds that Little
Blue made and turned to his dad saying “Azul, Azul”, pointing at the
truck. (Oh yes, even though he is the
silent type, he is also bi-lingual.) His dad looked over Dakota’s head with
tears in his eyes. It was Dakota who
later pointed out to us that it was raining on the page when he kept pointing
at the page and saying “agua.” By the
end of the day, we had managed to read through Little Blue Truck four or
five times, with all the sound effects and with much giggling. He had a new friend and a new aunt, both were
wonderful things in my eyes.
Reader Two – William, age
fourteen months.
After the wonderful experience with Dakota, I decided to
buy Little
Blue Truck, again, for our young grandson for Christmas. Christmas morning the living room was all
awash with paper, ribbon, boxes and toys.
When the box with Little Blue Truck was opened,
William happened to be sitting in my lap, “JOY”. I immediately opened the book to show it to him
while waiting for his next gift. Once
again, the eyes opened wide with the opening lines and sounds of the first
page. “little blue truck goes BEEP.” He looked at me, smiled and said “Bip”. I knew he was hooked. He sat mesmerized all the way through the
book. When I got to the page where the
big dump truck came through with a “HONK!!!”
He laughed, and tried his best to honk, and made me repeat it several
times. He loves his dump truck. All the way to the end of the book, he
followed Blue and Dump, then flipped the book back to the beginning.
More presents came along, but
he kept coming back to Little Blue Truck.
by Alic Shertle and Jill McElmurry
Now weeks later, Little Blue Truck still comes out several times a day to be read. It has become his favorite book.
Now weeks later, Little Blue Truck still comes out several times a day to be read. It has become his favorite book.
Kevin, William’s four year old
brother loves the book almost as much as his younger brother. I ran across a floor sized copy of the book
and got it for Kevin, who loves the book very much and enjoys the huge pages.
I would recommend this book for
any person wishing to entice their young toddler with a book. The focus is on sounds, but has a wonderful,
simple story of kindness and taking care of your friends. The language is straight forward and is not
lost on the young reader.
Our entire family awards this
book SEVEN stars out of FIVE stars.
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