The Little Fire Truck

August 15, 2017
Clearly The Little Dump Truck (2009) and The Little School Bus (2014) were just the prelude to Cuyler and Kolar's most ambitious project yet. "Perky" would not be a poor way of describing the little fire truck that shuttles its white driver, Jill, and her racially diverse fire crew all over town. Each rhyming stanza, one per spread, begins with the line "I'm a little fire truck" then proceeds in a standard abcb rhyme scheme. After rescuing a cat, the firefighters must contend with a burning building. Happily it just takes a couple "splish-splosh" squirts of the fire hose to put everything right. Aimed at toddlers and younger preschoolers, the art proves to be just as simple as the text. The digital illustrations keep the color bright, the anthropomorphized truck perky, and the situations shy of scary. Cuyler even opts to ensure that the burning building is pet- and baby-free. When it comes to true firefighting enthusiasts, more is always better, hence the endpapers' impressive (not to mention diverse and gender-inclusive) visual dictionary of terms. (Front and rear are identical.) Alas, no fire-safety tips are included aside from the visual image of Jill and crew crawling along the floor, so continue to turn to Mike Austin's Fire Engine No. 9 (2015) as the industry standard. A deserving if not divine little book, worthy of its pint-sized enthusiasts. (Picture book. 2-5)

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October 1, 2017

PreS-In this delightful story, a fire truck takes readers on its work adventures. "I'm a little fire truck, /my driver's name is Jill./We zip all over town/ my siren's loud and shrill." Bright colorful digital illustrations, often in fire engine red, capture the right tone. The text clearly conveys the positive message that firefighters help people. Another strength of this title is the vocabulary. The text is easy to understand and may expose listeners to new words; the illustrations will give children clues on what those words mean. "Holding pikes and axes, they crawl along the floor." In the accompanying image, there are three firefighters in uniform crawling on the ground with those tools. The front and back endpapers have cute pictures showing tools of the trade. They include a pike pole, nozzle, and pumper truck to name a few. This is a popular subject among preschoolers and classes, and the simple catchy text and large illustrations make this a good storytime selection. VERDICT A welcome addition to preschools and libraries for vehicle fans, community helper units, Fire Prevention Week programs, and beyond.- Robin Sofge, Prince William Public Library System, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017
Preschool-G This jaunty, third addition to the Little Vehicles series has a fire truck as narrator. The rhyming text on each double-page spread always starts with I'm a little fire truck, a nice anchoring device for a book filled with action, in and out of the fire station. The fire truck is proud of the work he and his driver, firefighter Jill, do. We zip all over town, the fire truck exults, rescuing animals and protecting people by putting out fires. Kids will love seeing the bustle of the diverse crew sliding down the firehouse's pole, putting on boots and protective gear, gathering equipment, and then blaring through the streets to the fire. The bright digital illustrations make clever use of angles to show the fire truck speeding along, and its headlights and grille form a friendly face. Opening and closing spreads feature labeled drawings of emergency vehicles, equipment, and personnel that should get readers into the action and then reflecting on what they've seen. Jubilant and absorbing, with a female firefighter at the forefront.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
"I'm a little fire truck, / my driver's name is Jill. / We zip all over town, / my siren's loud and shrill." A fire truck delivers toddler-grade excitement with catchy rhyming descriptions of its firefighting gang in action. As in �cf2]The Little School Bus�cf1] and �cf2]The Little Dump Truck�cf1], Kolar's geometric digital art is on sturdy card-stock for recent board-book graduates.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)