Supertruck to the Rescue!!!!!!

Among my grandson's favorite things right now is a set of matchbox cars and trucks that belonged to my own sons when they were his age.

Ironically, my daughter found the matchbox cars the same week she checked out a new library book that has become another of my grandson's current favorites: Supertruck, by Stephen Savage...

The city is full of brave trucks who help put out fires and fix power lines.

But the garbage truck?  He just collects the trash (and bears an uncanny resemblance to "Clark Kent" - must be the glasses).

When the city is hit by a terrible blizzard, only one superhero can save the day..."Supertruck", who emerges from his secret garage transformed!

Author/illustrator Stephen Savage's simple and colorful style is so much fun!  We love his illustrations for Margaret Wise Brown's The Father's Are Coming Home (which, by the way, is perfect for Father's Day, coming up at the end of this month.)

A few mornings ago, I had to laugh as my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson greeted me with,

 "Hey Grandma - look at my Bucket Truck!"  

Not quite sure what a "bucket truck" was, I looked questioningly at my daughter, and she pointed to the new library book.  Right there in the story was a bucket truck - green like my grandson's - one of the characters in the book!

Lately Supertruck's friend, Bucket Truck, has been accompanying my grandson everywhere: while eating, doing crafts, building "power lines" with his blocks, riding in the car... everywhere!

Great rescue, Supertruck!  Your story is keeping my grandson's imagination alive and his little hands busy!  (Hmm, I guess I'll have to edit my previous post about "Planes, Trains, and Things that Roar" to include "Trucks", too!)

TWO "GOODNIGHT BOOKS" FROM MARGARET WISE BROWN

Margaret Wise Brown
1910-1952

Today marks the birthday of Margaret Wise Brown, one of America's most prolific children's book authors of the Twentieth Century. She attempted to write most of her books from the "here and now" perspective of a child, rather than in the more popular style of the day: fairytale and fantasy.  Her books often included animals and everyday things that mattered to children.  Even though she died at the young age of 42, at the peak of her career she had over 100 books in print.  She chose her illustrators carefully.  They included Clement Hurd, Garth Williams, Felicia Bond, and Leonard Weisgard.

HER GOODNIGHT BOOKS...

She is probably best known for her timeless classic, GOODNIGHT MOON (1947), illustrated by Clement Hurd.  Who can forget the rhythmic text that begins:

In the great green room

There was a telephone 

And a red balloon

And a picture of --

The cow jumping over the moon!

The whole story takes place in one room, as the baby bunny bids a ritual "goodnight" to all the objects in his room.  Have you ever noticed these little details...

-the hands on the two clocks progress from 7 PM to 8:10 PM.
-the young mouse and kittens wander around the room. The mouse is present in all pages showing the room.
-the red balloon hanging over the bed disappears in several of the color plates, then reappears at the end.
-the room lighting grows progressively darker.
-the moon rises in the left-hand window.
-the socks disappear from the drying rack.
-the open book in the bookshelf is The Runaway Bunny.
-the book on the nightstand is Goodnight Moon.
-in the painting of the cow jumping over the moon, the mailbox in the right-hand side of the painting occasionally disappears.
-in the painting of the three bears, the painting hanging in the bears' room is a painting of a cow jumping over the moon.
-the painting of the fly-fishing bunny, which appears only in two color plates, appears to be black and white (or otherwise devoid of color). It is very similar to a picture in the book The Runaway Bunny.
-the number of books in the bookshelf changes.
-the pendulum of the bedside clock disappears in the final room scene
-the stripes on the bunny's shirt change
-in the last page the word bunny is gone off the brush

A new (though even older never-before-published!) "goodnight book" by Margaret Wise Brown is THE FATHERS ARE COMING HOME (2010), pictures by talented illustrator Stephen Savage.

It is nighttime and the fathers are coming home... 

This book is a perfect bedtime story, and would also be a great read for Father's Day.  The original manuscript was written in 1943, as a tribute to WWII fathers, but it was never published.  Though lost for years with many other of Brown's writings, it was finally published in 2010. The story is about fathers returning to their children at the day's end - birds, bugs, bunnies, fish - and finally, a sailor dad coming home from sea to his child.  The bold and colorful illustrations and simple, lyrical text make a sweet book for 2-5 year olds.