Alice SchertleCritiques

Independent Reading Level: Grades 2-5.
The Golden Book Awards: Best Message
Best Books of the Year (2019)

This poem book seems to be about capturing memories in a children's early childhood, which is good because it's hard to remember things from birth. It captures beautiful memories with grandparents, families, events, etc. I think it's about keeping memories saved in a box where they will stay there forever.

Contains: Jeremy's collection -- Jeremy Bean and the dust bunny -- Jeremy Bean's St. Patrick's Day.

A story about helping others, even if they're mean to your friends (and also maybe an intro to anthropomorphic cars). And like, your friends will help YOU so maybe they'll indirectly help you help the person who was a dick? anyway lots of fun onomatopoeia.

The big city sure is a speedy, noisy place for a country truck like Blue. Buses, police cars, and taxis are everywhere–and soon there's a giant traffic jam!

First, I like that the main characters have names. I find that stories with named characters are more engaging, and I think it helps get across the point of friendship. Blue was nice to all the animals and greeted them on his journey. Dump didn't. So when they got stuck, the animals only wanted to help Blue. Alas, both were saved, and Dump learned a good lesson about friendship. There is a secondary message about helping others in need, even if they don't deserve it. Overall, my boy loved the book, and I never got tired of it, despite reading it again and again, sometimes on the same night. We originally got a copy from the library but bought it for ourselves after. That probably shows how much we liked it. I suspect we will get the others in the series too.

Recommended age: 0-3 years

Writing style: The Little Blue Truck is written in verse, with a ton of animal and truck sounds. It was easy to add interesting sound effects or vary my voice when reading because of the variety of fonts, font colors, and capitalization.

Lexile score: AD390L
Decoding difficulty: 3/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 3/5
Sentences difficulty: 3/5
Patterns difficulty: 4/5

Illustration style: The illustrations pulled me into the book. They use subtle, warm colors, like autumn, which is the season the book takes place. I especially loved the illustration of Dump zooming past Blue and the animals.

Reality-based: Yes. The animals and trucks are drawn realistically, except for the big eyes on the Blue and Dump (the two vehicles in the story). The message of helping others is applicable to children, and getting stuck in mud is relatable.

A cute story (told in rhyme) about a little blue truck helping animals get to school. It's simple and nothing earth shattering, but a fun addition to the Little Blue Truck catalog.

Genre
Stories in rhyme
Subject
Snow
Snow sculpture
Snowmen

This book is really fun to read and students will learn about friendship and feeling wanted. This book is for ages 4-6. I got this book from a website online.

I think this book would be perfect for an end of the school year book to het the students excited for summer and maybe any future vacations they may have. This book is definitely meant for lower grade levels such as kindergarten-1st grade.

I thought this book would be a great book to read out loud to a class. This book shows the importance of being kind and nice to others and how people are going to be more willing to help you out if you treat them with respect. I would say this book is definitely targeted towards primary grades or even pre-k.

Genre
Picture books for children
Stories in rhyme
Storytime standouts
Tone
Noisy
Upbeat
Illustration
Folk-art style
Subject
Animals
Cooperation
Dump trucks
Friendship
Helpfulness
Kindness
Rural life
Trucks

Genre
Picture books for children
Subject
Animal behavior
Bears
Food consumption
Food habits
Hair
Nose
Seasons

I think this book was great to introduce friendship as well as introducing farm animals. It brings in the animals and the blue truck is giving them a ride to a certain location, it's a great book for younger kids and it can also relate to old tale of Old McDonald.

A funny rhyming book that follows a blue truck interacting with themes and objects of springtime. This book could be good for a younger classroom that is learning rhyming words and iy could be a fun book for the class.

I read this book to my 5-year-old neighbor, Everleigh. We had fun with some of the repetitive elements, like counting "one... two... three!" and then yelling "POP!" when the mouse pops out of his hole. Even Everleigh's 1-year-old brother started to sit still and pay attention each time we counted and then yelled "POP!" (which isn't actually written into the text). Everleigh particularly liked repeating the various noises: "rustle, rustle, rustle" and "Honk! Honk!" and "busy, busy, bizzzzz" (and her brother liked listening to them). But, when the story was over and I asked Everleigh for her review, she wrote, "It was too long." She admitted that she did like it for the most part, but it was just "too long." So this may not be the best choice for kids with short attention spans, but it's a lovely book, and most kids will probably enjoy the noises, repetition, and illustrations. (Everleigh's mom and I both really liked it.)

Note: I received a hardcover copy of this book from the publisher through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Kids looking for adventure and excitement will enjoy the scrapes Digby gets into on his way home from school.


I love that the president is a woman.

Blue wishes he could be a school bus. What a fun job–but much too big for a little pickup like Blue. Or is it? When somebody misses the bus, it’s up to Blue to get his friend to school on time. Beep! Beep! Vroom!

Pretty standard fare for Little Blue Truck. A thunder storm has blown in and the farm animals would like to be with Little Blue where it is safe and dray. After the storm Little blue tucks them all in. Typical but still fun Little Blue Truck story.

3.5 stars

Cute and nice little poems. The clothing perspective was interesting.

What a delight. The art is so charming. A very gentle little counting story complete with animal noises and twinkling lights. Adore.

It isn't quite as good as the first one, but it's still pretty darn cute.

E loves it. The illustrations are fun But, for me, the text is slightly clunky. I trip over my tongue because of some phrases. Still fun, though.