Good Night, Truck

PreS-Gr 1—An inspiring day of hauling, digging, sailing, plowing, and flying occurs as five vehicles on the go (truck, digger, boat, tractor, and rocket, respectively) spend a busy morning accomplishing what they do best—until it is ultimately time to call it a day. As each one is parked for the evening, "the tractor in its shed" in "time for bed," the "boat…safely docked" at "nearly teatime by the clock," there is yet one more mobile friend that the narrator needs to tuck in: his own beloved truck. The last refrain in Odgers's rhyming picture book transforms this charming read-aloud into as much of a bedtime story as a celebration of all things mobile. The expressive, beady eyes of each vehicle are as appealing as one of Pixar's animated Cars, though the hazy, pastel background illustrations are less eye-catching. Children thrilled by anything on the move will have a rollicking good time and should absorb the implicit message that all things active, themselves included, need to stop for the night. A good springboard for discussion might be to ask what each individual child prefers to tuck in at bedtime. A follow-up companion to this book might be Anne Rockwell's varied picture books about different vehicles, including Big Wheels (Walker, 2003).