King of Wheels! Trucker and Train by Hannah Stark

TRUCKER LOVED TO RULE THE ROAD.

He loves to roar down the road. He loves to see the little vehicles--mopeds, compact cars, and the petite pick-ups scurry to get out of his lane.

HONNNK! goes his big klaxen, clearing the way for his big wheels to roll past them all.

But then, cresting the hill, Trucker sees something that makes even him take notice. WOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOO!

What's that? Trucker hits the gas and speeds up. It's Train!

TRUCKER GAWKED AT THE 2... 4.... 7... 8... 10 CARS PULLED BY TRAIN'S BIG BLACK ENGINE.

Train is fast, and his whistle is louder than Trucker's horn! There's a crossing ahead. Trucker has to brake, and so do the mo-peds, cars, and little pick-ups. Trucker is rumbling and grumbling.

WHY ARE WE THE ONES STOPPING?

Trucker roars off, heading up the mountain at full throttle, but as Train zooms by, Trucker's engine is forced to slow down on the steep slope. He grows angry as even the mo-peds pass him on the grade, and he can't wait to outrun them and beat Train all on the way down the mountain. But when he reaches the peak, he spots something far ahead that makes even his loud klaxen quail!

A BROKEN-OFF GATE!

WHAT IF NO ONE STOPS?

It's a real race now, not to win, but to get to the crossing and block the tracks to save the other little vehicles, in Hannah Stark's latest, Trucker and Train (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019). Size and speed are useful in more than one way, and Trucker is everyone's hero. Stark's little parable of power is portrayed perfectly by Bob Kolar's simple geometrically-shaped rivals, set against bright white pages, each with its own job to do and his own way to do it. As Kirkus Reviews puts it, "Grab your CBs and hold onto your whistle. In this battle of truck vs. train, the true winners are the readers."

For more pun-filled power struggles, pair this one with Chris Barton's comic tale of those toy-box titans, Shark vs. Train (see review here).