Duck in the Truck
Jez Alborough. HarperCollins Publishers, $16.99 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-06-028685-9
""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.)
Details
Reviewed on: 02/28/2000
Genre: Children's
Board Books - 16 pages - 978-1-929132-83-6
Hardcover - 32 pages - 978-0-00-720927-9
Hardcover - 32 pages - 978-0-00-714214-9
Other - 978-0-00-752511-9
Paperback - 1 pages - 978-0-06-443833-9
Paperback - 1 pages - 978-0-00-731541-3
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