Independent Reading Level: Grades 2-5.
The Golden Book Awards: Best Message
Best Books of the Year (2019)

A story about helping others, even if they're mean to your friends (and also maybe an intro to anthropomorphic cars). And like, your friends will help YOU so maybe they'll indirectly help you help the person who was a dick? anyway lots of fun onomatopoeia. ( )

First, I like that the main characters have names. I find that stories with named characters are more engaging, and I think it helps get across the point of friendship. Blue was nice to all the animals and greeted them on his journey. Dump didn't. So when they got stuck, the animals only wanted to help Blue. Alas, both were saved, and Dump learned a good lesson about friendship. There is a secondary message about helping others in need, even if they don't deserve it. Overall, my boy loved the book, and I never got tired of it, despite reading it again and again, sometimes on the same night. We originally got a copy from the library but bought it for ourselves after. That probably shows how much we liked it. I suspect we will get the others in the series too.

Recommended age: 0-3 years

Writing style: The Little Blue Truck is written in verse, with a ton of animal and truck sounds. It was easy to add interesting sound effects or vary my voice when reading because of the variety of fonts, font colors, and capitalization.

Lexile score: AD390L
Decoding difficulty: 3/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 3/5
Sentences difficulty: 3/5
Patterns difficulty: 4/5

Illustration style: The illustrations pulled me into the book. They use subtle, warm colors, like autumn, which is the season the book takes place. I especially loved the illustration of Dump zooming past Blue and the animals.

Reality-based: Yes. The animals and trucks are drawn realistically, except for the big eyes on the Blue and Dump (the two vehicles in the story). The message of helping others is applicable to children, and getting stuck in mud is relatable. ( )

Genre
Picture books for children
Stories in rhyme
Storytime standouts
Tone
Noisy
Upbeat
Illustration
Folk-art style
Subject
Animals
Cooperation
Dump trucks
Friendship
Helpfulness
Kindness
Rural life
Trucks

E loves it. The illustrations are fun But, for me, the text is slightly clunky. I trip over my tongue because of some phrases. Still fun, though. ( )