If I Could Drive a Fire Truck!

Tonka: If I Could Drive

by Michael Teitelbaum, Jeff Walker

Gemma loves to play with her favorite toy fire truck while riding in the car to visit Grandma. But when she wonders, What if I could drive a fire truck? her imagination takes off, and exciting things happen! This shaped 8x8 storybook shows children how fire trucks help brave firefighters do their jobs.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Transport, Nonfiction, Firefighters

24 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Michael Teitelbaum has been a writer and editor of children’s books for more than thirty years. He worked on staff as an editor at Golden Books, Grossett & Dunlop, and Macmillan. In addition to The Scary States of America, Michael’s fiction work includes The Very Hungry Zombie: A Parody, and The Very Thirsty Vampire: A Parody both done with artist extraordinaire Jon Apple, published by Skyhorse. His non-fiction work includes writing Jackie Robinson: Champion for Equality, published by Sterling, and The Baseball Hall of Fame, a 2-volume encyclopedia, published by Grolier. He is also the series editor of Great Escapes, true-life acts of incredible courage, published by Harper Collins.
Michael has always had an interest in the paranormal, despite a rather normal childhood in Brooklyn, NY. These days, Michael lives with his wife, Sheleigah, and two talkative cats in an (as yet unhaunted) 180-year-old farmhouse in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.

Reviews

[SBC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool picture book about a little girl (Jessica) who is riding to her grandma's house in the car with her toy fire truck. When a real truck drives past, she imagines all the amazing things she would do if she could drive a fire truck. My son and I really enjoyed this.

[Carly MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book for fire safety week. A little girls imagination about driving a fire truck. This book shows what firemen do.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that the main character is a girl!

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about driving a fire tuck on the way to grandma's house. I do like how it talked about the different parts to a firetruck and fire house.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intro into what happens when a fire truck goes to a fire.

[Esmoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't write this book off just because it doubles as a gigantic Tonka advertisement. The story takes us through a fire response call, as imagined by a little girl who wants to be a fire fighter when she grows up. The illustrations are more realistic than artistic (they look like maybe they're made with photoshop), but I think this is part of what my son likes about the book. I love the fact that Tonka chose to have a girl as the main character. When I grew up in the 80's, such material was commonplace, but it is harder these days to make sure that my son has the opportunity to see examples of men and women in non-traditional jobs.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

See as it was Fire Safety Week this week, I added this to my reading list for my Kindergarten students. They really enjoyed it and it went well with the program they had yesterday from our local fire department. Gemma loves playing with her favorite toy which happens to be a fire truck. On her way to her Grandma's house, she imagines what it would be like to drive a fire truck and live the life of a fireman.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

My little girl picked this one out at the summer reading program kick off for our public library. She loves firetrucks, and I love that this one is about a little girl and her fire truck. Even if it's a giant advertisement for Tonka trucks, that's not what she's paying attention to. She loves firetrucks and luckily there were plenty of pictures for her to see her favorite trucks.

[Ellee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, I think it tries too hard to be gender neutral. All the trucks say "Tonka" on them in case you didn't catch that it was a Tonka book. Otherwise, it was all right. LOTS of pictures of fire trucks - very suitable for the little ones who love them! :)

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Xander's favorite book these days, and so I read it at least once a day. It is pretty cute.

[Kara "kc"]

I love fire truck book. I'm sleeping. I like it.

[Elizabeth S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the fire truck parts, and I like that a girl is allowed to have a fire truck and dream about driving one, but the rest is rather blah.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the pictures and I like how they set out the pages so I can really see wats going on.

[Amanda]

I think I read this book 4x at my placement and they still love it!

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this to a 2-year-old and was bored as anything, but he seemed to like it. However, I hated the illustrations. They were so weird. Like poorly done photoshops run through a filter.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colin likes it, so I gave it a two star. It feels more like teaching and less of a story.