Little Blue Truck

This is a top 3 board book for my husband, son, and I. It is so so cute. Little Blue Truck is a super friendly truck that always makes time to say hello to eveyrone as he gets to where he is going. Because he is so friendly and kind, he has made many animal friends who also greet him with their signature species sound (Blue says Beep, Frog says Croak, Piggy says Oink, etc...). Along comes a rude Dump Truck who is too busy to say hello to anyone and wants them out of his way. As he rushes by he ends up getting stuck in the mud. It is so fitting because he is very much a stick in the mud. He calls for help, but nobody hears him (or nobody cares). Little Blue Truck heard him and came to his rescue, but in the process, he got stuck too. Blue calls for help and the animals can't get there fast enough. They all push Blue who pushes the Dump Truck and finally get them all free. The Dump Truck has learned an important lesson about being kind and befriending others, and that you need friends because when you get in trouble they will be there for you. I absolutely love how simple the story is all while giving a very strong and important message. It is all about slowing down, enjoying those around you, and the importance of kindness. On top of it being a great story, the art is fantastic. It has a great feel of nostalgia and whimsy. It isn't as vibrant as many of our other board books, but that style of art wouldn't fit this. It is also great because the rhythm and rhyming work very well and are fun to read. My son absolutely adores all the animal sounds and we have a lot of fun with that. I would call this a must have in any little one's book collection.

Our boys (ages 4 & 2) LOVE this book, and so do we. We've probably read it 40+ times now. It has a great rhyming cadence that is catchy and fun. Although we usually strive for animal noise realism, this book reads better if you just say the words instead of imitating the sounds. Having been through it so much, we've discovered a lot of little life lessons to be learned through it. It makes it enjoyable and worthwhile for parents to read to their children again and again. Don't point them all out at once though! * The animals are kind to those who are kind to them. * The animals are unkind to the dump truck who is unkind to them. (These are the natural inclinations of little children.) * The little blue truck is ALWAYS kind, even to the dump truck who is mean to him. (This is hard to do, but what we desire for our children to do. And, he's more than just "nice" but actually helps him.) * The dump truck's attitude was changed by the little blue truck's undeserved kindness more than by the animals giving him what he deserved. * The dump truck thought what he was doing was more important than being kind to those around him, and his pushy attitude gets him stuck in trouble. We teach our children that people are more important than things. * After the animals come to help, everyone does their part. Each contribution matters, and it couldn't have been done without any one of them, even the big green toad! * Even while helping, the dump truck is covering them all with mud. Sometimes helping is hard, dirty work. But they are diligent to push through it until the work is done. This is not a silly children's book that you would grow tired of reading. I would recommend this for any age, and it's definitely become one of our family's favorites. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have. :-)

This book was my son's favorite for his first three years. I read it so much to him that I had it memorized and we had to buy a second book because the first one fell apart. The pictures are great and give a lot of personality to the Little Blue Truck, the animals, and the Dump Truck. The rhyming text is wonderful and I've read that reading stories that rhyme or nursery rhymes to children in their first couple years of life helps increase language comprehension and association more effectively than non-rhyming stories because they are able to respond to rhythm and tone before they understand language. This is a lovely book for that purpose. It not only rhymes but also has animal sounds which my son loved. The premise is that the little blue truck winds his way through the countryside beeping his horn to say hi to all the animals and the animals say hi back with their own sounds (baa, maa, cluck, peep, naaayy, etc.). Then the big Dump Truck comes barreling through in a rush and gets stuck in the mud. The blue truck tries to help but gets stuck too. Then all the animals hear the beep of the Little Blue Truck and come to rescue him and the Dump. The sweet moral of the story is if you help others they will in turn help you when you need it. I think the other underlying moral for adults is to slow down and be aware of your relationships and don't just be so focused on yourself. We are a community and we all need each other. Anyway, that is a very underlying current and is certainly not the intent of the story. Don't hesitate to buy this book for all the babies you know!

It's not often that I will take time to write a review. I am an avid reader with several thousand books. I recently had a baby and wanted to pass on my love of reading and learning to him. So, even while I was pregnant I would read to him. Primarily books I had on the kindle. When he was born I decided an electronic device was not what he needed to learn and that there was a need for textile books. Thus, began my journey to look for books worth buying. I was told about the Little Blue Truck on a message forum. I finally ordered it on Amazon, and received it quickly. Once I received it I read it to make sure it was an okay book to pass along to my little one. I love the book so I read it to him he is 3 months old and loves it when I read to him. This book is great for someone so little. He loves the colors and illustrations he will just stare at the pages. Then there is the book itself. The book has lots of rhythms, and sounds like oink, moo, beep, etc... so he got a kick every time I made those sounds. For now that is enough for him but I can see him liking this book when he gets older to. Primarily, because of the trucks and animals involved. As a parent I like the moral of the story. I would say it is not to boastful and rude just because your bigger or better because you don't know when you might need help from someone you consider lesser than yourself. I am so happy we added this to our collection and it will for sure be read many times in our family.

You know, I probably spoil my grandchildren as much as the next one. But I do try to get them good stuff, and a lot of times, it's money out the window. Play with it 5 minutes, then thrown in the corner and forgotten. Not this book. I feel so good about giving my grandson this. He's one and a half, and he loves it. It's a real "cuddle-and-read" book. The author has written a sweet little story about working together without being high handed about the lesson. She also developes a nice rhythm with the poetry, simple and great sounding. Just enough of a ratio of words to pictures, too. The artwork nicely complements the text. And, hey! I even get to do animal noises! If I were Bill Gates, I'd see that every little boy got one of these after delivery (home or hospital). It's that good.

My 5yr old recieved this from grandma for Christmas 2013. Since then we have had the following results: my teen enjoys this, my tween finds it cute and likes to read it to her brothers, my kinder loves it, and I am about to purchase it for the 4th time (in less than 2 years) for my autistic toddler who cannot get enough of it. (he prefers dad to read it to him because of dad's wonderful way of sounding like a cow.) Dad has fun reading it to our boys, and as for myself, I have it memorized. This book may not have bright colors or have fun, attention grabbing images that draw immediate attention (I was a skeptic at first because of it), but trust me, after the first few readings, you will find it entertaining. The words engage my autistic toddler with the animals and sounds. Its repetitive enough to keep his attention. Because he doesnt speak this book helps him learn sounds of animals. He may not say 'cow' yet, but we know he means cow when he comes to dad and "ooooo". I cannot reccomend this book enough, especially for autistic children who are struggling to speak.

This book is an utter delight to read to our son. Very few books begin so well, carry through so effortlessly and end with such a loving lesson that more children and grown ups around the world might do well to carry with them through life. Our son is only 8 months old, but he surely gets excited and happy to hear us sing the story out to him before bedtime. The rhyming is only a small part of the fun, but the author and the illustrator have done a magnificent job of narrating a simple yet endearing story about friendship and helping others. I'm here to buy the companion book to the Little Blue Truck and can't wait until we can read it too. This is most definitely our favorite book to read (or sing) together to our son.

This is a most wonderful book, and I can't send it back because I need it as an Easter gift, BUT... It is warped, pretty badly. Because of another experience I had with mold, twice, on a Good Night Moon board book, I learned that the book came from a warehouse in upstate New York that had some "water" problems. Because this book (and two copies of Sheep in a Jeep) also arrived warped and in one day, not two, I suspect they came from this same warehouse. Unfortunately, I also ordered Sheep in a Jeep and Giraffe Can't Dance (or something like that) and had them wrapped and sent as a gift to my grand nephew, Tyler. I would very much appreciate your taking the time to look into this matter and getting back to me. As you can see from my account, I am a loyal Amazon customer, but this is very troublesome as we have three grandchildren ages three and under, and I NEED these books to arrive in good condition. (We also have a number of other young children both in our family and friends of our family.) Thank you very much for your help with this matter. Jennifer

The Little Blue truck is wonderfully written in rhyme with great art work so that a toddler can follow the story. It is a story about a friendly blue truck in the country going for a drive. On his way he passes his friends the frog, the cow, the pig, the sheep, the chicken and her chick, the goat, the horse and duck, who all respond to his friendly "beep" with their respective animal sounds. Along comes a big dump truck, who is in a hurry and doesn't have time to let the duck cross the street before barreling down the road. Of course his rudeness is rewarded by getting suck in a mud puddle. All the animals hear the dump truck's pleas for help, but choose to ignore him because he wasn't nice to them. Little Blue knows better and goes to help the dump truck despite his rudeness. In the meantime Little Blue also gets stuck in the mud while trying to help. He cries "beep, beep, beep" and all of his animal friends come running to help him, who in turn help the dump truck. The dump truck learns his lesson, "Now I see a lot depends on a helping hand from a few good friends" and knows now to be polite to people because you never know when you might need their help. I think this is a wonderful tale of two wrongs don't make right while still showing that mad behavior is not acceptable. My two boys love this story and I don't mind reading it over and over again.

Es un libro muy bonito lleno de color y muy buen contenido me encanto el mensaje que deja esta historia, a mi hija de 3 años le gusto mucho.

Great story about the value of friendship and helping others. The illustrations are cute, and my daughter loves saying "Beep beep" ;-)

Lo recomiendo mucho, tiene unos dibujos preciosos y la historia sencilla pero interesante para niños pequeños. Tambien me encanta el precio.

J'adore ce livre, les rhymes, les dessins et l'histoire et la morale. Il est suffisamment grand pour les petites mains