A few months ago, I tracked how many times Foster said the word “mama” in a day.1 Lately, I’ve been thinking I need to track how many times he says the word “twuck.”
We count the trucks on our dog walking route every morning, where we reliably see four pickups and one “MAH twuck” (a monster truck, also known as a big white truck with souped-up wheels.) He’ll frequently holler “Mommy, TWUCK” as we’re driving down the road. (Those trucks are always yellow, even when they’re not.) We talk about Pop’s truck, Grandpa’s truck, fire trucks, police trucks, big trucks, little trucks.
He is a boy obsessed. As such, of the four books mentioned here, two feature trucks. I will do my best to ensure future installments aren’t so vehicularly focused, but I make no promises.
Read Vol. 1 here (one truck-adjacent book) and Vol. 2 here (one truck book, one train book).
With Any Luck, I’ll Drive a Truck by David Friend
A nearly perfect book if you’re Foster. There’s a “mix twuck” (cement mixer). A “dit-ter twuck” (digger/excavator/backhoe). A “wee oo wee oo” with a “lahleh” (fire truck with a ladder). This one has its own sweet story hiding in the illustrations: We see the story from the kid driver’s perspective until we realize he’s actually just imagining himself in all these trucks, and his three stuffed animals have tagged along on each adventure. However — and this is a silly thing to bump on, but I do it every time — the last page includes the word “wassup.” Spelled like that. In a book published in 2019. A full 20 years after the Budweiser commercial you’re now thinking of. Too much, David. Too much.
There’s An Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Meyer
I have such a visceral memory of reading this as a kid that I can taste the peanut butter sandwich mentioned as part of the alligator bait. I found this fascinating: Did my mom make me a peanut butter sandwich after we read this book? Did I attend some event where we read this book and then ate peanut butter sandwiches? Did I consume a peanut butter sandwich while reading this to myself one day? I noodled over this for days, bringing it up every time we read this book, until Tanner finally told me it wasn’t that interesting of a topic. So now I’m telling you. And realizing he was right.2
Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug! by Mem Fox
This is “Where’s Waldo” for the toddler set. A ladybug is hiding among various toys in different rooms in the house, with fun mixed media illustrations. We found the ladybug, then moved on to finding the giraffe, the birds, different colored shoes, different colored cars, et cetera and so on. It’s also pretty fun to yell “yoo HOO, ladyBUG!” in your best Mrs. Doubtfire voice. Or so I hear.
Skyscraper (and Hop, and Ribbit, and Beehive) by Jorey Hurley
I was first introduced to author/illustrator Jorey Hurley when I found a copy of Ribbit at a consignment sale before Foster was born. The bold graphic illustrations immediately grabbed me — I mean, look at her beautiful work! Then I found Hop at a thrift store right before Foster’s first birthday, and I fell equally in love with her ability to tell a full story with just one word per page. In Ribbit, we see the full life cycle of a frog. In Hop, baby bunnies play, eat, hide from predators, find shelter during a rainstorm, and snuggle up with Mama. I have it on good authority from my beekeeper husband that Beehive is a perfect depiction of what a bee does. And Skyscraper! A series of trucks constructs an entire building over the course of this book, with a detailed list of each truck’s job featured at the end. They’re easy to read as is, easy to use as a springboard for a bigger story, with some of the most beautiful art in kids’ books today to accompany each one.
Not making that up.
Don’t tell him.
With Any Luck I'll Drive a Truck came to us in the Dolly Parton subscription, and I quickly moved it along to the Little Free Library... not matter its other merits, I just could not handle that "wassup." No sir.