Barb Odanaka's second children's book, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, is available via your favorite independent bookstore or through Amazon.com.
REVIEWS:
Kirkus: "Young audiences will be happy to crash and bash right along with these familiar mechanical Wild Things."
Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal: "Rhythmic, rhyming language abounds as two piglets welcome the early-morning arrival of a pair of "Rumbling, roaring" garbage trucks. All of the offal details are here as the green behemoths gobble up everything from apple cores and dirty diapers to broken furniture. Smiling porcine workers, with "Greasy gloves-sticky boots-/stains a-plenty on their suits," feed the beasts while "Flies a-buzzin'/by the dozen" enjoy a feast at the "rolling bug buffet." After completing all of the "Crushing,/cramming,/screeching,/slamming," the vehicles thunder away, leaving the youngsters to re-create the action with their toy replicas.
"Done in ink and egg tempera on canvas, the vivacious two-page paintings convey the text's enthusiasm and energy. The trucks, shown from the rear and personified with mouthlike hoppers and red brakelight eyes, gleefully munch their way through an array of vividly colored refuse. The pigs are appealing, and readers can follow the antics of their dogs as they rush outside to be part of the fun. Pair this onomatopoeic offering with other tongue-tingling read-alouds...for a crash-bang storytime on a perennially popular topic."
Childrens Literature:
The sounds and smells of garbage trucks are celebrated in this active, rhythmic story. The rhyming text shouts to be read aloud. Sure to be a popular choice for storytime reading!"
Recommended by Parents' Choice!
Trucks of all kinds have long been a staple of picture books. However, with respect to garbage trucks, the subject is generally pretty “sanitized.” Barbara Odanaka's new addition to the genre is a marked departure from the squeaky-clean vehicles in other children's stories—this book gets outright down and dirty. The book opens simply enough, with two piglets waking up to the pre-dawn sounds of the garbage men making their rounds. The emphasis in these early pages is on the noises made by the trucks, rumbling and roaring like “dragons snoring.” But then the focus turn to the actual garbage—rotten eggs, apple cores, diapers, and so on. Odanaka isn't afraid to be realistic; her smiley garbage men wear “Greasy gloves . . .sticky boots . . .stains a-plenty on their suits,” and there are flies “a-buzzin' by the dozen.” Will Hillenbrand's vivid ink and egg tempera illustrations bring all these stinky details to life—including the truck itself, which gobbles up everything with gusto. There's a definite gross-out element to the book, but Odanaka's rhyming text and enthusiastic look at an important job make this entirely suitable for small children.
Zarina Mullan Plath ©2006 Parents' Choice
