Part concept book, part story, Carter's (Get to Work Trucks!
) perky, thoughtfully executed offering reiterates the days of the week as it tracks a package sent on a Monday, brought to a ship on Tuesday, unloaded Wednesday and so on, until it is opened at a children's birthday party on Sunday. Short, active sentences suit the needs of a very young audience (Thursday: "Move it./ Stack it./ Don't lose it"), as does the emphasis on transportation. The package travels not only by mail truck and ship, but also rides on a forklift, plane, train and other conveyances, and, in a clever ending, the package turns out to contain a toy mail truck. Carter illustrates in his trademark style, constructing each scene with foam board and plaster, then painting with lusciously thick strokes in a bright palette, and then photographing it. His technique works best on the vehicles, which profit from the multidimensional treatment of the various components, but less well on the figures, which are rendered as flat. Accordingly, the initial spreads, which emphasize people and not transport, don't share the energy that animates most of the book. If not as uniformly dynamic as other works by Carter, this book picks up steam as it goes along; it's likely to carry the target audience through multiple readings. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)
