The Crazy Crawler Crane and Other Very Short Truck Stories

Truck lovers who've graduated from board book fare will take a fancy to this clever collection, which salutes 14 different vehicles in as many brief rhymes. Cuetara, reprising the succinct structure of her Terrible Teresa and Other Very Short Stories, devotes one spread per truck; each contains four cartoon panels with a neatly hand-lettered line of verse below. The table of contents reveals something for every young trucker's taste: Cuetara waxes rhapsodic over construction gear in ""Cement Mixer,"" rental rides in ""Moving Van"" and municipal wheels in ""Fire Truck"" and ""Garbage Truck"" (""Kids think it's swell,/ except for the smell""). Most profiles show children interacting with these trucks and their drivers; for instance, a three-year-old boy dreams of operating a dump truck, a girl admires the lofty view from a cherry picker and in the title tale, ""The crawler crane has gone insane./ Oh my gosh, it's grabbing Jane!/ Look out, Jane is angry now./ She kicks it in the treads, kapow!"" The briefest, all of eight words, involves the distracted driver of a red convertible who yammers on his cell phone: ""Yak yak!/ Ouch, smack!/ Bad luck!/ Tow truck."" For truck aficionados, there's even a pen-and-ink drawing of the featured machine in the upper-right corner of each spread. Cuetera exploits her restrained format to full advantage, showcasing both her pithy wit and inventiveness. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)