about the book
“Trucks that sweep and dig and shift. Trucks that dump and tow and lift. Hauling garbage, moving goods, building houses, clearing woods. Trucks as far as eyes can see…Which truck would you like to be?”
Celebrate sixteen hard-working machines with these lively rhymes and fun illustrations. Some of these vehicles are sweet while others are rugged. There is a garbage truck, street sweeper, snowplow, fire truck, ambulance, semi, backhoe, excavator, bulldozer, cement mixer, and more. Which one is your favorite?
The garbage truck adores the smells, sights, and sounds of his work. The ambulance carries folks to the hospital with tender care. The dump truck drops his load precisely where it belongs, and the excavator—well, he is a smooth operator!
A little girl, two little boys, and their cute floppy-eared dog (all wearing hard hats of course) operate the powerful machines. And on the final page, you’ll be surprised to learn who is really big and what is really not so big!
about the author
Hope Vestergaard, born in New Orleans, grew up in a chaotic house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with eleven siblings. She read everything: labels, encyclopedias, and the whole library. She was also an accomplished fibber, great at cleaning up big messes, and a very good fudger (a person who can figure out how to make odd things work). These skills came in handy when she decided to write children’s books!
Hope studied psychology and geology at Smith College. When three famous authors visited her children’s literature class, she remembers thinking what a cool job they had. She never even considered writing books herself. After graduating, she taught in early childhood programs for many years.
After reading hundreds of books to her students and to her own kids, she began to wonder why kids loved some books that she didn’t care for, and weren’t interested in some of the beautiful books she loved. She found a newspaper ad for a class on writing picture books taught by Nancy Shaw and Tracy Gallup. They got her hooked!
Hope has authored ten picture books and one for teachers about creating curriculums around books children love. She also wrote a rhyming dictionary for poets and songwriters. She is currently creating developmental materials for educators, and she edits an early childhood website.
When she is not busy doing all of that, she gardens, watches bird, and takes care of the menagerie of animals, her two sons, and her husband on their small Ann Arbor farm.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography : Amazon
about the illustrator
David Slonim is a pretty impressive guy. Not only does he write and illustrate children’s books, he is also a renowned fine artist.
Based in Chesterfield, Indiana, he supports a family of six (including two in college) by coloring for a living! Illustrating a book is a long drawn-out process, and while he is waiting for comments from editors, he works on his fine art projects. While other illustrators have turned to digital programs to hurry the creative process, David does everything the traditional way, with paints and brushes. He is exceptional at matching the tone of his art work to the feeling of the author’s story. Some of his illustrations are zany, others are realistic.
David began drawing as a young teen, copying cartoon characters at first. From there, he worked from his own imagination; and then at the Rhode Island School of Design, he learned to paint from observation. Now almost forty years later, David is still creating art work by copying, imagining, and observing.
He began writing children’s picture books during reading time with his own children. He would doodle as he made up stories. He sent some of his doodles to an editor friend, who helped David turn his sketches into his first book. So far he has written, illustrated, and published fifteen books. He has also illustrated a bunch of books for other authors.
His advice for rookie illustrators is all about relating to people. He says it is very important to be respectful, be a team player, be easy to work with, be trusted to meet deadlines, and to express opinions humbly.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator interview : Dave G. Derrick Jr.
Also by David Slonim:
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Dreidel by Caryn Yacowitz. Arthur A. Levine Books. 2014.
Deer Watch by Pat Lowery Collins. Candlewick Press. 2013.
Slugger by Susan Pearson. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2013.
I Loathe You. Aladdin. 2012.
How to Teach a Slug to Read by Susan Pearson. 2011.
Bed Hog by Georgette Noullet. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2011.
10 Turkeys in the Road by Brenda Reeves Sturgis. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2011.
Silly Tilly by Eileen Spinelli. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2009.
Look Out, Jeremy Bean! by Alice Schertle. Chronicle Books. 2009.
You Think It’s Easy Being the Tooth Fairy? by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt. Chronicle Books. 2007.
He Came with the Couch. Chronicle Books. 2005.
Who Swallowed Harold? : And Other Poems about Pets by Susan Pearson. Marshall Cavendish Children’s. 2005.
Squeal and Squawk : Barnyard Talk by Susan Pearson. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2004.
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