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Book Review of Truckery Rhymes (Jon Scieszka's Trucktown)

Truckery Rhymes (Jon Scieszka's Trucktown)
reviewed on + 47 more book reviews


This is an adorable "all-boy" book! Written and illustrated as a collaborative between 4 famous children's authors, the rhymes are truck-inspired spin-offs of the classic rhymes we all know.

The illustrations are cute, and feature the characters of "Trucktown". I haven't ever heard of trucktown before this, but it appears to be a series of books and characters by Jon Scieszka as part of his "guys read" initiative.

In any case, they are cute, and my toddler loves this book. At first, his face said "Uh, mom, that's the music I know, but you've messed up all the words" but now he loves the new versions of the rhymes.

One that I can remember off the top of my head is "POP blows the Diesel" to the tune of "POP goes the weasel"

"All around the parking garage, Pat Pumper chased the Diesel. Pat Pumper thought it was all in truck fun, till POP blows the Diesel!

Pat Pumper with at spool of hose, and Lucy with the Ladder, that's the way the Truck Game goes, POP blows the diesel"

In the book, "Pat Pumper" is the fire engine hose truck, and "Lucy" is the fire engine ladder truck, and "Diesel (aka Big Rig)" is the 18-wheeler truck.

I have to point out that there are a couple of poems that feel "wierd" to me. For instance, the "Little Piggies" spin-off reads

"this truck worried about the market
this truck worried about home
this truck worried about *something I can't remember*
and this truck worried about bugs on the windshield, flat tires, running out of gas, *etc etc* and everything else a truck could possibly worry about,
and this truck honked *eeek eek eek* all the way home"

I thought that was kinda... odd. Maybe it's just not my type of literary humor? I don't know. My son doesn't really like that one either. But there are only 2 poems like that, so we just skip them or I re-rhyme them on the spot if I can.

Overall, this book is a great addition to my little guy's library, and I would buy it as a gift for any little boys I know. The authors obviously worked very hard on making-over these rhymes and the book is great. Highly recommend this book :)