Little Blue Truck Leads the Way

Little Blue Truck

by Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry (Illustrator)

Zooom! Wooeeee . . . ! "Make way!" The big city sure is a speedy, noisy place for a country truck like Blue. Everywhere Blue looks, he sees buses, police cars, taxis, vans, a street sweeper, and even the mayor’s limousine. With everyone pushing to be first, soon there’s a giant traffic jam! But even a wrangle-tangle is no match for Little Blue Truck, who comes to the rescue in true Blue style.
 
Brimming with bright colors, sounds, and city energy, this adventure makes working together and taking turns more fun than ever. Now with a free downloadable party kit!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Trucks, Transport, Kids, Storytime

38 pages, Board Book

First published October 19, 2009

About the author

Alice Schertle has written more than 40 books, mostly for children. A mother and former elementary school teacher, Ms. Schertle is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Many of her most famous works are poetic in nature, though she writes about a wide variety of topics.

Reviews

[Jasmine from How Useful It Is · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for my toddler’s nap time. A blue truck dealing with traffic. Lots of cars for little ones.

Read from kindle unlimited.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this when I was searching our local bookstore looking through the board book section of the children’s section. Where were these when our children were growing up? Instead, we just gave them young children’s/picture books which we reassembled and taped and reassembled and taped, until we finally had to throw them out, which is why we have so few books left today for that age group.

Now there is a plethora of wonderful board books to choose from—old favorites as well as many new ones, like this little one about trucks and cars!

The hero of this series, the Little Blue Truck, visits the Big City and gets stuck smack dab in the middle surrounded by all the angry, self-important bigger vehicles. But he wisely keeps his cool and reminds them, “You might be fast and I might be slow, but one at a time is the way to go.” The proud stretch limo wants to go first, but his engine dies, and when the mayor gets to give a speech, he was more impressed with the courtesy and agility, not to mention wisdom, of the Little Blue Truck who then leads a parade through the city with the mayor waving at everyone from the cab of Little Blue.

A cute rhyming story with a great message! Parents and little ones alike will enjoy reading this over and over! (And there are plenty more in the series!)

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

These illustrations are appealing and the rhyme is fun, so I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I was bothered, as the songwriter David Wilcox would say, for metaphorical reasons.

Little Blue Truck wanders starry-eyed into the big city, but is quickly discombobulated by the traffic flow. The other city cars, including a city bus, grocery delivery truck, street sweeper, taxi, and mayor's limousine are mean and aggressive to Little Blue Truck. Little Blue dispenses his simple, folksy advice about going one at a time, and (after the mayor's limo gets "over-heated" and Little Blue offers him a ride) the whole city throws Little Blue a parade!

I know what I'm about to say sounds like a parody, or sarcastic, but I promise you, it is not. This whole tale reads as urban-phobic. Yes, it is good to be kind and patient, but I don't really think this story teaches those values. Little Blue transports himself to a new environment and has all the answers. The author manipulates the world around to ensure that this is so. Little Blue learns nothing. He doesn't change. The world changes for him. He doesn't have to learn to adapt to new circumstances; the world alters itself to the gravitational pull of his naivete.

You might say, "Chill out, dude, it's just a children's book, it's not that deep." But I disagree! Children's books are among the most powerful to shape people's worldviews due to the impressionable nature of the audience. Alice Schertle has the tools to write good children's books, but I don't think she is thinking hard enough about the messages her art is sending.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Angelina Justice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love the character and colors, but this book is too busy and abstract in comparison to the first book.

[Colleen Chi-Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read 4 or 5 of the Little Blue Truck books. The original is one of my faves and it and other LBT books are now beloved books for my toddler grandson and me.

This new one continues the adventures of the Little Blue Truck as it goes into the big city, enters a huge traffic jam, has to figure out the rules outside of his country setting, and enjoys helping in the mayor’s parade.

For boys or girls, this one and all the others we’ve read are fun stories that can teach a subtle lesson and create special opportunities for cuddling, laughing and hugs.

We enjoyed this one on audiobook. It was fun in the car and later at home. The rest we’ve read are all picture books.

Thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Denise Lauron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful children's book about taking turns. Little Blue gets his point across, yet again.

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

In general I like the Little Blue Truck series, but damn do I hate this one. In case it's not clear from the vehemence of my feeling in this review, my kid loves this book.

It's a book about a truck who drives into the city, cries about traffic, becomes a patsy for the mayor to distract from his inability to implement any traffic easing solutions at all, and then leaves the city. Why was little blue truck even in the city? Literally he drives through and goes home.

While the people in the city are relatively diverse, every single named character - vehicles and people - are male. Super frustrating.

Also they use the rhyme "avenue" and "little blue" twice in the book.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Blue displays true leadership capabilities when thrown into a new and unfamiliar settings

Instead of being intimidated by the Street Sweeper and the Mayor’s Limo, he dispenses wisdom the whole city recognizes as the solution to their traffic problem, and subsequently leads the population in a parade celebrating their new “one at a time” policy.

9/10. Will likely read 734 more times, one after the other, when my son decides we need to start over instead of moving on to one of the other, vastly inferior titles in his library.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was just okay... kind of a disappointment after the very cute Little Blue Truck. Unfortunately, my kids like me to read this one as much as the first... and it's just not as enjoyable.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple country folk teaches the busy city folk a seemingly better way to live, and brings inefficiency to their existence. Wrong lesson to be learned, and full of political grandstanding.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too preachy for me but the children in my ones and twos class like it

[Janee Fritz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another riveting story from the LBT universe. Little Blue goes to the city and encounters a traffic jam. Using his charisma and manners he resolves this problem and everyone can get to where they want to go. Excellent car illustrations and city illustrations. I enjoy reading these to my daughter.

However, I have so many more questions about the deep lore of these books now though. The cars are sentient and they can talk to each other and to animals as we know from other LBT books. But the cars can also communicate with people?! This shocked me to my core because I was under the assumption that humans didn’t exist in this universe. Just like in the movie cars. But now I know. Can’t wait to get to the other LBT books.

[Avery Jonas Groshans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Jake Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like I was being pushed a really ruralist vision of big cities but came together in the end when the mayor stepped up big.

[Hezekiah Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cars and trucks were all in a tangle is my favorite page

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was quite happy to find this book, a sequel to Little Blue Truck which is very popular here. This one follows the same kind of pattern, involving Little Blue helping someone else and saving the day with his good manners and considerateness.

He's in the big city, which has something of a 30s look to it, and completely overwhelmed and amazed at how big and fast and rather scary it is. The other vehicles on the road are all so impatient and bossy and soon a traffic jam ensues, and the mayor's limousine dies so Blue offers him a ride, and they all continue on their way in single-file rather than pushing and shoving.

While these books do carry a message, a moral, I find I don't mind them too much - there's just something nice about the way the text flows and the message has a good lead-up, as well as being a good lesson for children to learn (hell, and adults as well).

[Kamolika Das · Rating 1 out of 5]

Little Blue Truck goes around judging everyone else for being in a rush when in reality they have JOBS! Must be nice for Little Blue Truck to be able to take his time. Obviously the street sweeper and the bus and the police car are in a hurry. And it pisses me off that this truck from the country has the gall to go into a city that he doesn’t know about and tell them how to fix their traffic issues. Reminds me a lot about how state lawmakers tell municipal leaders what they can and can’t do (like making it illegal for them to raise the minimum wage or create new local taxes). Weird right wing vibes!

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointment after loving the first one (The Little Blue Truck). It's quite a lot longer than the first, which on its own is not a problem (although younger kids may lose interest). But this lacks the up-tempo cadence that makes The Little Blue Truck a joy to read. There are too many characters and too much going on, in stark contrast to the perfect simplicity of the first book. Also, the story itself is not nearly as endearing as The Little Blue Truck.

[FrankieReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello. I am 1. I think this book is even better than the first one. There are so many good parts: the man sweeping the sidewalk, the traffic jam that has lots of yellow cars, the lady with a brown turtleneck, the smoke coming out of the limo, those bushes by the side of the road, the puppy on the lady's shoulder, and the fire hydrant are particularly wonderful.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good message about the importance of taking turns, and full of things that go (trucks, buses, taxis, limos, motorcycles). But there's an anti-urban undercurrent that bothers me far more than my little son.

[brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally, I didn't trust the limousine riding mayor one bit.

[Chance Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartwarming and imaginative fantasy in which someone from the country drives around a city and suddenly all vehicles become courteous drivers who obey all traffic laws and stop honking.

[Chrisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the visual exercise it was for my daughter. But she's a bit young for them.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could listen to 1,000 versions of Little Blue Truck books with my kids! This format was such an immersive experience for my kids and they adored it. They immediately asked for more.

Thank you Harper Collins for allowing me to listen to an advance copy!

[Mira Prater · Rating 5 out of 5]

This blue truck, well he led the way.

[BrookeLynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it.

[Jessica Calaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 - 3 years

[Jeff Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, in my opinion, the worst of the Little Blue Truck series. It’s still a solid book for children and I enjoy the entire series.

[Macy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fun, beautiful, and has a good moral! It’s a great continuation of the original book. Unfortunately the author didn’t take as much care in a lot of the other sequels.