Haulin': Big Rig by Jamie A. Swenson

HELLO THERE!

NAME'S FRANKIE.

I'M A BIG RIG--I'VE GOT 18 READY-TO-ROLL TIRES JUST WAITING TO HIT THE PAVEMENT.

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, EIGHTEEN!

Frankie, the boss big rig, the super semi, the top cat of the tractor-trailer team, hits the road with cargo on board, taking his readers along for the ride. Ten-four, old buddy! There's plenty of long-haul lingo as the rubber hits the road, when Big Rig Frankie takes on the cargo and hits the blacktop.

Frankie, a rig whose windshield forms two big, googly blue eyes, with wipers for eyebrows and a double chrome grin for a bumper, sports plenty of diesel charm. This truck has the horsepower and he can't wait to show off what he can do. Want to hear his horn?

URRRRNNNT! URRRRNNNT! URRRRRRNNNT!

Frankie's got some serious brakes, too--pressure brakes and the notorious Jake brakes as well-- when he performs a quick stop at the turtle crossing, to let Mama Turtle take the turtle tykes across. EEEEERRRRRRRRRK!!

Rain? No problem, as Frankie's windshield wipers schwaat through the downpour, and Frankie's running lights light up like a Christmas tree for all to see. But then, just as the sun re-appears, he runs into the his arch nemesis, alligators, retread strips thrown off by trucks ahead of Frankie. Frankie hits the Jake brake again, and screeches to a halt. But the road friction is too much, and Frankie is dead in the water with a bad blow-out. Time to get on the horn and call up a service truck for repairs pronto!

But soon Frankie is back on the road, rolling into his miracle mile, with the cargo--a giant dinosaur model for Dinosaur Land--riding safe and sound in the trailer and soon downloaded at destination, right on his ETA. Frankie is done with one and ready for the return.

SEE YOU ON THE FLIP-FLOP!

KEEP THE SUNNY SIDE UP AND RUBBER SIDE DOWN!"

Jamie A. Swenson's just published Big Rig (Hyperion, 2014) is equipped, not stripped, with plenty of trucking talk, verses with va-va-va-voooom, and all the gearhead lowdown on what it takes to take to the interstate. Artist Ned Young's illustrations are inspired, a combination of  a realistic-looking rig with comical expressions that make him the star of the freeways, done up in big, bright, full-bleed double-page spreads with lots of landscape details to set off his eighteen-wheeler hero. Kids who love all things vehicular will go for the go-go Frankie and all the cool vehicular vernacular, which Swenson thoughtfully collates in his appended glossary, the Truck-tionary.