Duck in the Truck

""This is the Duck driving home in a truck./ This is the track which is taking him back."" So begins this deliciously percussive rhyming story of a feathered truck driver who becomes mired in muck and the three animal Good Samaritans (a frog, a sheep and a goat) who try to help him. As Alborough's (It's the Bear; My Friend Bear) words roll out in an infectious, hard-hitting beat with more than a few rhythmic surprises, he metes out his bold pictures in perfect accompaniment. A triptych of vignettes creates a slow-motion effect as the truck first strikes a rock, is then shown aloft, and finally hits the muck; close-up spreads focus on the exasperated characters attempting to budge the vehicle. With light-hearted tension, wry characterizations and lots of squishy mud, this tale makes for a quacking good read-aloud. Ages 3-6. (Feb.)