review: Trucks Go Pop!

Trucks Go Pop! written and illustrated by Bob Staake. Little, Brown, 2008 (978-0-316-00510-4) $17.99

In the town of Truckopolis, happy trucks are going about their days--delivering milk, picking up recycling... shooting clowns out of cannons. Vibrantly colored pictures and some innovative paper engineering makes this a particularly busy pop-up book; there's plenty of action on every page, often with actual movement, as well as a lot to look at. (Some of it, like a poster advertising "telepathic flesh-boring," quite bizarre.) The 3D of the pop-ups is complemented surprisingly well by a whimsical, flat drawing style that's heavy on odd, bold shapes and contrasting colors. This is mostly a book for looking at: "little truck/big truck/silly truck/dig truck" is half the text right there. Includes a colorful poster of "Truckopolis." (3 & up)