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  • Big Truck Little Island

Big Truck Little Island

Illustrator
Chris Van Dusen
Publication Date
May 03, 2022
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  2nd − 3rd
Language
English
Format
Picture Book
Big Truck Little Island

Description

That big truck is stuck! How will the island residents get where they're going? A tale of community and ingenuity from the celebrated Chris Van Dusen, inspired by a true story.

When a big truck and its big load get stuck on a narrow road, traffic on the little island comes to a halt. Some cars need to go south and some have to travel north. How will Meg get to her swim meet? What about Barry's ballet class? Luckily, the kids come up with an ingenious solution: why not just swap cars? Inspired by an incident that happened on Vinalhaven, Maine, Chris Van Dusen tells a fun tale of resourcefulness and community through clever, rhyming wordplay and whimsical illustrations, sprinkled with plenty of cars and trucks for transportation-loving readers.

Publication date
May 03, 2022
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781536203936
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV041030 - Juvenile Fiction | Transportation | Cars & Trucks
JUV024000 - Juvenile Fiction | Lifestyles | Country Life
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
Picture books
Stories in rhyme
Trucks
Islands
Automobiles
Traffic congestion
Cooperativeness

ALA/Booklist

 A salutary case study in how trust and cooperation can turn a big problem into no problem.

None

Starred Review
Van Dusen is in full command of his rhyming text, using rhythm and sound to set the pace and convey mood. His expressive characters add humor to the situation.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

In his signature art style, Van Dusen (the Mercy Watson series) opens with an expansive bird's-eye spread of a tugboat headed across a northerly bay on "one bright summer day." Readers can almost taste the salt air as the tug hauls a barge, on which sits a semi with an "extra large" covered load, to the titular island. Once on land, the driver "came to a switchback, terribly tight, / then felt the whole payload shift off to his right," blocking the island's single road and necessitating a rescue. But instead of focusing on extracting the jackknifed truck, Van Dusen turns his attention to the island's residents: four children of various skin tones stuck in vehicles on either side of the semi. Blocked from getting to their respective outings, and noting that the adults seem more frustrated than action-oriented, the kids briskly confer, and then "quickly decided, as friends, what to do": "Listen," one says, "let's all exchange cars./ We'll borrow yours, and then you borrow ours." The crisply rhyming, economic text underscores both the protagonists' cut-to-the-chase ingenuity and the story's deftly delivered core message: when community and trust run deep, life's inevitable obstacles are a lot easier to work around. An author's note details the story's origins on Vinalhaven, Maine. Ages 3-7. (May)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Kirkus

A perfect little slice of life with a unique take on kindness and compromise.
Chris Van Dusen
Chris Van Dusen is the creator of many outstanding books for children, including The Circus Ship and Randy Riley's Really Big Hit. He is also the illustrator of President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath by Mac Barnett and the best-selling Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo. He lives in Maine.
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