Common Sense Media Review
By Jan Carr
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Rhyming text and trucks galore make natural kid pleaser.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In WITH ANY LUCK, I'LL DRIVE A TRUCK, a 7-year-old boy describes the various trucks he's learned to drive each year since he was 2. He runs through the roster, which includes construction trucks such as a concrete mixer, backhoe, and bulldozer, some farm trucks such as a combine and plow, and a fire engine. Though the art shows him as a kid driving and maneuvering the trucks with the help of his three animal friends, by the end of the book the trucks are revealed to be toys on his bedroom floor and the animal friends his stuffed animals. The last page shows what he aspires to be, a grown-up truck driver at the wheel of a big rig.
Is It Any Good?
Working trucks barrel across the pages as a young boy imagines he's driving them and operating their heavy machinery, while the book tells his story in easy-breezy rhyme and bold, bright art. The narrator describes all types of trucks, from farm to construction site, and the art pictures the trucks doing their heavy work. Introduces kids to types and names of trucks, and action verbs used to describe the work, for instance, plowing and baling.
The fun twist at the end -- that the boy hasn't actually been driving the big rigs but playing with toy trucks on his bedroom floor -- underscores the value of play, implicitly supporting the oft-quoted Montessori proposition that "play is the work of the child." This is a perfect choice for the legions of truck-obsessed young kids.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about trucks. How many can you name? What jobs do they do?
What's the surprise at the end of the story? Can you find the boy's helpers on the last page?
What job do you want to do when you're older? Do you like to pretend you're doing it now?
Book Details
- Author: David Friend
- Illustrator: Michael Rex
- Genre: Picture Book
- Topics: Cars and Trucks , Great Boy Role Models
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
- Publication date: June 14, 2016
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 3 - 5
- Number of pages: 32
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 13, 2017
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