Product Description

Follow the big red truck on it's cross-country journey in Donald Crew's classic wordless book, perfect for sharing with the very young.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #327539 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-22
• Released on: 1997-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Board book
• 18 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780688155971
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In this wordless Caldecott Honor book, striking graphics help little ones follow a big red truck on its bustling journey. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Donald Crews is the renowned creator of two Caldecott Honor books, Freight Train and Truck. Among his other enormously popular books are such favorites as Night at the Fair, Sail Away, Bigmama's, Shortcut, and School Bus. He and his wife, Ann Jonas, live in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Donald Crews grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and says that all through his childhood the members of his family were always doing something with their hands. He was always drawing pictures. Now, in the old farmhouse where he lives with his wife, the noted author and illustrator Ann Jonas, Donald Crews is still drawing pictures.

After graduating from New York City's Cooper Union, Mr. Crews spent three years working as a designer. He was assistant art director of Dance magazine, on the staff of a small design studio, and did freelance work as a book-jacket designer. But in 1962 he was inducted into the Army, and for a time his artistic pursuits were set aside. As the end of his eighteen-month military stint in Germany approached, he assigned himself to the task of writing and illustrating a children's book to add to his portfolio. The result was the brilliant concept book We Read: A to Z (Harper & Row, 1967), which, nearly twenty years later, was reissued by Greenwillow Books. Ten Black Dots, a counting book, came next, and then several books for which he did illustrations only. But the turning point came in 1978, when Greenwillow published Freight Train, a picture book inspired by Mr. Crews's childhood train trips from Newark to visit his grandmother in Florida. It was named a Caldecott Honor Book. Since then, Mr. Crews has created several other highly acclaimed picture books (including Truck, a 1981 Calclecott Honor Book), all painted in the flat, clean colors and bright, unambiguous shapes that are the hallmarks of his striking graphics.

Donald Crews grew up in Newark, New Jersey, spent his summers in Cottondale, Florida, and was graduated from Cooper Union in New York City. He and his wife, Ann Jonas, live in Brooklyn, New York.

When Donald Crews is asked why he focuses on picture books, he frequently answers, "Why not?" All the tools necessary for the creation of any piece of art are also elements in a successful picture book. Mr. Crews chooses a subject, explores ways to develop the subject visually, writes a story, then produces his finished illustrations. And the final audience, the children, tell him that they like what he does. Why not, indeed!Donald Crews grew up in Newark, New Jersey, spent his summers in Cottondale, Florida, and was graduated from Cooper Union in New York City. He and his wife, Ann Jonas, live in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

A wordless book full of action
This book, a 1981 Caldecott Honor book, is a nearly wordless set of pictures that follow a red tractor-trailer truck across country as it makes a delivery. From the black of the end papers, Crews drops the reader immediately into the action as the story begins on the title page with the truck being loaded with colorful boxes of tricycles. From there, the truck begins its journey from New York through the Lincoln tunnel, passing truck stops and gas stations and enduring rain and traffic jams, until it crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where it unloads its cargo. The illustrations have an intense graphic quality, with sharp geometric shapes, heavy dark lines, and intense blocks of color. The style evokes the abstract shapes of road signs and intense colors of roadside attractions. The illustrations, printed on glossy paper, stretch across both pages and bleed to the edge of the page, drawing the reader further in to explore the pages. Children learning to read will be able to recognize many words in the road signs and on trucks and vans. Non-readers will enjoy spotting the red truck on each new page. The embedded storyline encourages children to follow a sequence of steps in a larger process, while the absence of words encourages children to elaborate on the action, making up their own stories to accompany the images.

Beep Beep Beep Beep yeh!
When I ask my 3 year old son Charlie to choose three books for bedtime reading, this book is invariably chosen from his truck shelf of books. The book documents a tractor trailer's trip, using signs, light signals and lots of traffic and highways. He loves it and so do I. This book also won a Caldecott Medal for illustrations when it was first published. Highly recommended.

Perfect for kids who resist reading!
I bought this book when my son was 18 months old. He had NO interest at all in sitting still to look at books. He took one look at all those TRUCKS and was transfixed. From the day I brought this book home he showed a greater interest in his other books and at 3 1/2 he is an avid "reader".