Trucks Trucks Trucks

by Peter Sís

Plowing! Digging! Hauling! Scooping! Is there anything that Matt and his battalion of big rigs can't do? Of course not! Caldecott Honor-winning Peter Sis throws things into high gear in this irresistible follow-up book to his popular Fire Truck. Young viewers will be enchanted by nine brightly colored earth-shaking machines, including a dump truck, a plow, a bulldozer, and a foldout spread of a crane that takes counting to exciting new heights. It's time to feel the rumble of trucks, trucks, trucks! 2000 Notable Children's Books (ALA)

Genres: Picture Books, Trucks, Childrens, Transport

26 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

PETER SÍS is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, filmmaker, painter and author. Born in 1949 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in Prague. He studied painting and filmmaking at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. His animated work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He came to America in 1982, and now lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his family. Peter Sís is the first children's book artist to be named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2012 he won The Hans Christian Andersen Award.

His many distinguished books include Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, Tibet: Through the Red Box, Madlenka, Rainbow Rhino, The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and The Conference of the Birds.

Reviews

[Alyson Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks is about a boy named Matt who needs to pick up his trucks. Matt picks up all of his trucks by acting out what each truck does. For the tractor, he plows, for the crane, he lifts and so on. Matt completes his task of cleaning up his trucks and goes out with his mom where he sees an entire construction site of the trucks he has at home. This book would be good for children ages 3-6. It teaches them they can have fun while cleaning up. If a child is interested in trucks, it also teaches them what every truck does in real life, so when they see the real truck, they know exactly what it does.

[Bailey Winter]

In this book, the boy’s love for his prized toys helps out with his great imagination. There is a line in the book that asks the yellow-haired boy to pick up his trucks. He picks them up, but not before having some fun. He drives them into their bin one at a time. Matt continues to pick them up but giving life to them as he puts each one back to where they need to go. The boy is in his fantasy world the whole time he is playing and the book does a great job of showing that with illustrations too.

[Megan McNutt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that could potentially be useful to read to a class one time as a whole and then leave in the classroom library for kids to read on their own. I think they will be able to remember the big words on the pages paired with the pictures which will be helpful in them learning how to read on their own. I think this would be good for kids just starting to get into reading or lower level kids that are having problems.

[Kristin Sadler]

This is an easy read book about trucks. It shows different trucks and things about and the way they work. It is very simple and meant for lower elementary students. With this book I would read to lower elementary and can be used to get children to know things about trucks.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 3 out of 5]

my truck loving nephew will enjoy this book Even though it is only one word a page. hopefully it will help him with weird recognition.

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid truck book for toddlers

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book answers what all those construction trucks do.
Simple text!

[Joy Keil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple....but my 1.5 yo just loves this book right now! BIG pictures of fun machines. Great one from the library.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be sure to do some pantomimes with the actions of the trucks.

[Bryce Decker]

This story is about a boy who has to clean up his trucks and acts out each truck as he puts it away. It's a great story to teach students that cleaning up can be fun if they use their imagination.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple but clever. My three-year-old’s new favorite.

[Hannah]

A book with very limited words showing all the different types of trucks that exist. This would be a very good book for young boys in the classroom

[Jessalyn Plant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple, but enjoyable.

[Kiersten Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book begins by the mother telling her son that he needs to clean up the toy trucks in his room. The book then follows describing the types of trucks that the boy owns and what their uses are. This book can be used for young children who are learning about how different machines and trucks operate.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be fantastic to read in toddler time. Very few words--but plenty of actions to get the children to do along with the book. Large illustrations to capture their attention. And a great choice for any of the truck-loving kids we have in the group.

4/27/10 & 4/29/10 & 5/3/10 & 5/5/10: Perfect. Each group loved it. A couple had extreme truck lovers so they thought it was great. And they loved doing the motions and such. But they all LOVED the lifting truck. Even the parents thought "Whoa!" It's nice when the really simple ones like this can be so enjoyable.

3/31/11 I tend to have a lot of boys around here, so the "Cars & Trucks" theme was a good one, especially this book. First group got involved with the actions, including the parents. (Always makes a difference when the parents are involved.) The second group wasn't as involved. I'm finding that the smaller groups here do not get as involved, probably because they don't see a whole bunch of other kids getting into it. Of course, I've always preferred the bigger groups!

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Max is asked to put away his toys. As he puts away each truck/construction toy in turn, he imagines himself playing with/driving them in progressively larger scale. Once the toys are put away, Max and parent go out, and peer into a construction site where the life-size versions of those trucks are working.
Most pages only have a single word (digging, lifting) on them and the crane page folds out. The illustrations are colored primarily in white, construction orange, and gray, giving it a simple feel.

For truck fans, this is an excellent book for practicing interaction with repeated reading: the words are easy to guess/remember, and they react with glee to supplying "Digging!" "Hauling!" etc. on the appropriate pages. Stands up to repeated reading; we first read it when my son was 3, and just enjoyed it again at 6. Nice little touches (like the crane lifting a sock) add interest.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, I should say that my 2 1/2-year-old, who picked this book out from the library, would probably give it a higher rating than 3 stars. He has requested "the digger book" multiple times since we brought it home. It's not my favorite, though. I think the illustrations are cool (I like that the only colors are black, white, and the yellow of all of the trucks) and I like that the book illustrates the child's imagination by showing him manipulating his trucks in his hands and then eventually riding in them. The text is incredibly simple, it gives an action word on each page: digging, hauling, rolling, etc. When I read it to my son I end up ad libbing quite a bit and asking him to tell me more about the trucks.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sawyer (2.5) would rate this book 5 stars. He makes me read it 3 times in a row. I don't love the artwork and plain color scheme (especially the gold and black...hate those colors). I don't mind how few words there are because it gives us an opportunity to talk about what's going on and to make sounds. Upon the 3rd reading I did discover a little deeper meaning in the drawings. Matt gets smaller as the diggers get more life-sized. And they are actually helping clean up his toys in the process.

When I saw it at the library I knew Sawyer would love it and I wasn't wrong. "I want to read my trucks book!" Sigh. Oh well. It's only a 3 week loan period, right?

[Bethany Sutherland]

Trucks Trucks Trucks is a book about trucks. There are many trucks that Matt had to pick up. Matt has a bunch of variety of trucks. The variety of trucks he has are used for plowing, lifting, sweeping, scooping, loading, hauling, digging, pushing,and rolling. Once Matt had picked up all his toy trucks, they could go out.

I liked this book in the fact how it used a child to pick up toys that are trucks and not just pictures of trucks. The author made a little story with it.

I would put this book in my classroom library.

[Marika Graham]

Trucks Trucks Trucks by Peter Sís is an informational children's picture book about the different types of trucks. Each page has a little boy, who later is identified by the author as Matt, on a different kind of truck. There are no descriptions just Matt, the truck, and the name of the truck.

Gouache paints were used for the illustrations. The colors used for the images were yellow, black, and white although each of the names of the trucks were in a different color. This made the name of the truck stand out and the focus of the reader would go to the truck, directly to the name.

[Felicity The Magnificent · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book a little boy had to clean up all his trucks. He pretended to be a workman. He digged with one of his trucks. He plowed with one of his trucks. He pushed with one of his trucks. He rolled with one of his trucks. He scooped with one of his trucks. He loaded with one of his trucks. He hauled with one of his trucks. He sweeped with one of his trucks. He lifted with one of his trucks until it was all cleaned up. I didn't like this book because it was about trucks. -by Felicity

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son picked this book out from the library last week.

The little boy in the illustrations for this book looks very much like my little blond-headed boy, so, naturally, I changed the name in the book from Matt to Thomas. Then my son wanted to know how the book knew that his room was messy. He also was entranced by the type and number of trucks in this book. He likes this book, but he does prefer his Trucks Go Pop! book right now. I'm OK with that.

[Alexander The Triumphant · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book a little played with his trucks. He digs with one of his trucks. He plows with one of his trucks. He pushes with one of his trucks. He rolls. And then scoops. And then he loads. And hauling. And sweeping. And lifting. And then he cleans up and then his Mom tells him he can go outside for a little while. I liked this book because there's trucks in it. -by Alexander

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little boy cleans up his room using a variety of trucks and gives a one word description of their work such as hauling, plowing, and loading. Features a gate-fold illustration that opens into a three-page spread.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the board book version of this and I have to say I really enjoyed the story line and the pretending Matt did with his trucks while he cleaned up his room. The pictures lend themselves well to story time and children will love doing all the actions the trucks are doing.

[Abby Huhe]

This would be a beginner book and helps introduce different types of trucks and their jobs that they do. It would be a great book to have around the classroom for the kids to pick up and read when they want to

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how the pictures and accompanying words get bigger page after page. I also like the page that opens and all the detail Sis puts into each truck.

[Little Miss and the Legomeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legomeister loved this book when he was three and four. Simple yet imaginative, it's a pleasure to read.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to remember this one for Jack. Not much to it, but then again, Jordan isn't all that in to trucks. I'm a bit curious as to why she picked this one...

[Sara Taylor-hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emergent reader level. Huge print. Boys would like