TRUCK STUCK

Oh, no! The viaduct is too low. The big red truck gets stuck, and in no time there’s a sticky traffic jam, with rubbernecking and horns honking and a virtual parade of colorful vehicles (followed a bit later by an actual parade of Boy Scouts carrying balloons). A comedy of errors ensues until a handful of helmeted traffic cops supervise the freeing of the big red truck. Wolf’s rhyming text is simple but snappy, and minimal enough to be mastered by very young readers or even younger listeners. And Davies’s quirky pen-and-ink illustrations should yield abundant laughter. Each vehicle (neatly identified) is a story in itself, from the long pink limousine to the exterminator’s truck with the bobbing bee on top to the leaky cement mixer. A delirious age-appropriate romp. (Picture book. 3-6)