Hot on the Trail: How to Track A Truck by Jason Carter Eaton

IF YOU WANT A PET TRUCK--AND WHO DOESN'T?--YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PERSON.

I HAVE GOT TWO DUMP TRUCKS AND A FIRE ENGINE MYSELF

I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ONE, AND THAT IS WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK.

In his new companion book to his popular How to Train a Train (reviewed here), author Jason Eaton pens a manual for the kid who wants a pet truck. Trains stay on their tracks, so they are easy to find and keep, but trucks are a different story. Trucks can be found wherever roads go, and many are even to be found off-road in the wilds, so before a kid adopts a truck, he's got to track down the perfect one. But the author has some apt advice for the novice truck fancier. First the potential truck owner needs to understand the natural habitats of trucks.

DO YOU WANT A MOVING TRUCK? THEY LIVE IN BUSY NEIGHBORHOODS.

A MONSTER TRUCK? THEY LURK IN ABANDONED PARKING LOTS.

The author points out that some delightful and desirable trucks may be migratory. Ice cream trucks head south in the winter, while snowplow trucks head north and are easily tracked down in wintry climes. And then the truck owner has to consider the proper breed of pet truck to fit his lifestyle.

IF YOU LIVE IN A SMALL APARTMENT, A CAR TRANSPORT TRUCK MAY NOT BE A WISE CHOICE.

And as for the actual capture of your chosen truck, you may need to learn how to recognize your truck's tire tracks and follow him to his lair. Sometimes you may EVEN have to lead them into your trap. But there's a perfect lure for the wily truck.

TRUCKS CAN'T HELP FOLLOWING A TRAIL OF ORANGE CONES.

And once you have your perfect pet truck in sight, remember you can conveniently attract it with the universal homing call of the truck.

MAKE A FIST AND PULL IT DOWN TWICE!

And the perspective owner will be rewarded with that characteristic call of the truck, "HONK!" in Jason Carter Eaton's latest, How to Track a Truck (Candlewick Press, 2016), in a comic treatise on truck-keeping that benefits hugely from noted artist John Rocco's bold and bright multi-perspective illustrations of all sorts of trucks and all sorts of kids successfully on safari to park trucks in their own homes. Each truck comes across with its own personality, yet all come together to cooperate in all sorts of truck-ish activities. As author Eaton promises, "You'll be good to GO!" And that is just what kid truck lovers love to hear.