ISBN 0679830618 - Board books in shapes have lately bothered me because the shapes are so random - they aren't the shape of anything in particular, just not square. For actually being the shape of a truck, Trucks gets extra credit from me, and for being small enough to toss in a bag and take on the go, even more credit! The usual sturdiness of board book pages will stand up well to the roughest "readers".

20 pages of trucks, highlighting some aspect of their functions, with graphics that cover every inch of every page and rhyming text. From a fire engine zooming by to a (nameless) truck that cuts down trees, Trucks contains vehicles most children will see every day and some they may never see in real life at all.

Into a world full of cutesie little books, Trucks brings a touch of testosterone. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you. It was strange that almost every vehicle was identified by a name (backhoe, cherry picker, school bus), but the "truck that cuts down trees" wasn't. Author Mallory Loehr made up for that by rhyming it with her environmentally friendly "Not too many, if you please!" Illustrator Harry McNaught did a nice job with the details, including a bottle of glass cleaner on top of the gas station's gas pump, a plaid shirt draped over the door of the cherry picker and cute little baby shoes hanging from the trucker's rearview mirror. I started writing my review thinking "4 stars" and, by the time I got to this sentence, that had already changed to 5; the more I look, the more I like.

- AnnaLovesBooks ( )