6 February 2015 LITTLE BLUE TRUCK (Lapboard book edition) by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry, HMH, March 2015, 30p., ISBN: 978-0-544-05685-5

“‘Cluck!’ said a chicken,

and her chick said, ‘Peep!’

‘Maaa!’ said a goat,

Blue said, ‘Beep!’

‘Neigh!’ said a horse.

‘Quack!’ said a duck.

‘Beep!’ said the friendly

Little Blue Truck.”

“Toddler Reading Milestones:

At this stage, your toddler learns through everyday experiences with books...

Toddlers who have been read to will invite others to read to them...

Toddlers learn that books are special...

Toddlers may use ‘storybook language’ in their everyday conversations...

Toddlers learn about the structure of stories from books...

Toddlers often show clear preferences and will ask to have a book read over and over again...”

--from the parents’ resources pages of the PBS website

Board books are especially valuable in the development of these toddler reading and language milestones. When toddlers have access to board books that have been read to them, it’s common to see these little kids independently and repeatedly sitting and  paging through the books, pointing out things, and even mimicking the cadence of the adult who read the book to them

Many valuable and fun board book “originals” have been written specifically for this format. Sandra Boynton’s sixteen-page concept board books are great examples. So are Steve Light’s transportation board books, filled with action and action noises.

Many toddlers who are read aloud to regularly develop an ability to focus on longer books with richer storylines.  But of the thousands of picture books for children that are published year in and year out, it takes the rare picture book to make the successful transition to a board book format designed for toddler audiences.

THE LITTLE BLUE TRUCK, originally published as a jacketed hardcover picture book in 2008, is one of the rare ones. Its rollicking cadence, wealth of onomatopoetic animal sounds, hysterically funny animal visages, and story about friendship and helping one another will appeal to toddlers. In some ways, this large lapboard book format is superior to the original jacketed hardcover edition. I love the way that this format permits us to fully see the two-page-wide illustrations.

“‘Beep!’ said Blue.

‘Who wants a ride?’

Everybody scrambled

to jump inside.”

Hop on board! This is a ride you don’t want your toddler to miss.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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