Book: The ROAD That TRUCKS BUILT
Author: Susanna Leonard Hill
Illustrator: Erica Sirotich
Publisher: Little Simon
Date: July 25, 2017
Genre: picture book; age 4 - 7, Preschool - 2
Pages: 40; hardcover
Price: $12.99
My rating: A fabulous book to delight the whole family

This is my seventh of twelve scheduled posts as my part in the back-to-back blog tours for Susanna Leonard Hill‘s three books coming out this month. How exciting is that! 🙂

Today I am reviewing the third of those three, a stand-alone book called The Road That Trucks Built, illustrated by Erica Sirotich. Even though it’s about trucks, this is a book that will appeal not only to little boys.

The first thing you’ll notice is the wonderful design (by Chani Yammer, as noted on the back cover) that allows the child to view each type of truck as it’s introduced in the story by turning a wheel that’s part of the front cover and tucked inside it. It’s not flimsy, either, but sturdy like the solid part of the covers. And it looks like a truck tire. Fun!

The Road That Trucks Built is a story written in easy, bouncy rhyme and rhythm. The reader is taken from being presented with a problem – that of traffic congestion and the need of a new road – to being taken through construction of the new road. Each step along the way is represented in lovely illustrations, showing the work done by each different type of truck in the road crew.  The trucks – a bulldozer, a scraper, a grader, a paver, a roller, a paint marker – are brightly illustrated and happy-faced. Then the story backtracks, reminding the reader of how the road got built taking each step in reverse, from paint marker to bulldozer.

This can be a wonderful memory game, a matching game, a learning colours game as each truck is a different colour, and identifying the words that rhyme.

In the very back are two facing pages on which is A guide to the trucks: and each one is shown with some descriptive words. An example is GRADER – Cab, Edge Blade, Engine, Front Axle – with a line from the word to the identified part. This is another way to learn and strengthen memory of the name of the truck, or its parts, or the colour. Susanna Leonard Hill has included many fun things for this book.

Erica Sirotich did a fantastic job at creating all the different trucks for this story.

 

 

And look at this illustration of the backed-up traffic before the new road is built:

 

 

Text copyright © 2017 by Susanna Leonard Hill
Illustration copyright © 2017 by Erica Sirotich
Used by permission of Little Simon

A cute illustration feature of this book is that both the front and back end-pages are covered with construction pylons – which you might know by another name such as traffic cones, road cones, highway cones, or  safety cones.

The Road That Trucks Built is available July 25, so you can pre-order now!

BONUS: To add to the fun, Susanna has provided us with a truck craft!

*** Popsicle Stick Pick-Up Truck

You will need:

4 jumbo popsicle sticks (per truck you want to make)

2 mini popsicle sticks (per truck you want to make)

Craft Paint and Paint Brushes  OR  Markers

Glue

Colored card stock

Scissors

Lay four jumbo popsicle sticks next to each other on a flat surface.

Glue two mini popsicle sticks across them (going the other way) one near each end.

This makes the body of the truck.

Set them aside until the glue has dried completely.

When the glue is dry, the kids can paint (or color) the popsicle sticks however they want while you cut wheels (circles), cabs (large trapezoids), windows (smaller trapezoids the same shape as the large ones), and grills (half circles) from card stock.

Glue the card stock wheels to the bottom of the popsicle stick truck body.

Glue the cab on top, and glue the window onto the cab.

Glue the grill on the front.

Feel free to embellish with rhinestones, glitter, paper flames, etc… whatever strikes your fancy!

Now you can play with the trucks or just display them proudly 😊 ***

Wait! Before you go I have two other important things to tell you.

Come back on Thursday, July 20, for my second illustrator interview! Erica Sirotich, illustrator of Susanna’s The Road That Trucks Built, shares some interesting insight into illustrating. And … we’re having a giveaway! (Be sure to follow the fun and easy rules to get into the draw.)

Exciting things are happening all month! Read about it HERE. 

We look forward to your supportive comments.

You can find The ROAD That TRUCKS BUILT by Susanna Leonard Hill on my BUY THE BOOK page. I also post my reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Goodreads, and on Chapters.Indigo if available there. 

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂 ♥

BONUS: Blog tour schedule for The Road That Trucks Built (with slight variation regarding my posts near end of July)  This link takes you to Susanna’s blog.