Rig Riddles: Whose Truck? by Toni Buzzeo

WHEN SOMEONE HURTS
LIGHTS FLASH AND GLOW.

WHOSE TRUCK IS THIS?
DO YOU KNOW?

Noted author Toni Buzzeo's Whose Truck? (Whose Tools?) (Abrams Appleseed Books, 2015) has all the right stuff for young truck fanciers, whose numbers are legion! Buzzeo builds into this picture book staple an engaging design which works as a basic identification book for toddlers and a vocabulary-building nonfiction entry for older readers.

Each of the six featured service vehicles has a literal three-fold exposition. The verso (left-hand) page features a rhyming riddle with clues to the identify of each truck, while the recto (right-hand) page shows artist Jim Datz' realistic but stylized drawing of each one on the job. Then the eye-catching gatefold opens to show the workers associated with the vehicle, each performing his or her particular role with the appropriate equipment or tool. The electric utility truck gatefold shows the workers repairing fallen power lines with the help of their aerial bucket and boom, and the ever-popular firetruck pages show the hydrant intake hose, the deluge gun, and the fire fighters with their ladders and axes on the job. EMT technicians block traffic, examine patients, and load them into their first-response facility for the trip to the ER.

Also featured are highway maintenance vehicles--scapers, asphalt trucks, concrete spreaders, and all; the construction vehicles include all the usual heavy-duty equipment--cranes and levelers, and even the broadcast trucks and their news hounds show off their antennas, cameras, and cable teams.

Even toy trucks are given their due, in this outstanding salute to those community services and equipment that kids love to watch on the job. Male and female workers of both genders and various ethnic groups are featured by illustrator Datz plying their trades with zest, making this book one that even young readers will enjoy perusing closely all on their own. "A must for toddlers and preschoolers," says Kirkus in its starred review.

EMR(abbits): Rescue Bunnies by Doreen Cronin

NEWBIE IS A RESCUE BUNNY TRAINEE.

HER LAST TEST WILL BE THE TOUGHEST OF ALL.... THE FIELD TEST.

UNTIL THEN HER JOB IS TO "ALPHABETIZE " THE SPICE RACK.

Appropriately nicknamed "Newbie," the young would-be rescue bunny waits for her final trial. She is well-trained, but even a zealous young emergency rescue rabbit must have her secret self-doubts. Will she blow her big moment? Will she crack in the clutch? Will she chicken out at her first chance to show her stuff?

At last the long-awaited moment comes:

LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON, THE SECOND SHIFT PICKED UP AN URGENT DISTRESS SIGNAL.

A GIRAFFE IN TROUBLE!

And Newbie's first test is a toughie. A baby giraffe is stuck in a mudhole and a gang of hungry hyenas are on the way to the scene as well. On the way to the site Newbie receives her final bit of rescue protocol: instructions for the top-secret CODE RED! That is, if the rescue seems doomed to fail, the rescue bunnies have to make a hard call--to pull out to save themselves and leave the victim to his or her fate!

But this little giraffe is helpless in her mudhole, and Newbie can't be convinced that their best choice is to bail on the mission! However, things are looking grim: the hyenas are a group of well-disciplined and dangerous predators, and the rescue team--well, after all, they are a bunch of bunnies!

Will Newbie run away to fight another day, or will she find a way to rescue the potential victim of an impending unfortunate outcome?

Doreen Cronin's Rescue Bunnies (Balzer & Bray, 2010) takes its time building to an exciting climax as Cronin tries out a different approach in her latest picture book. Newbie is a bit of a conflicted would-be hero, but as expected she comes through in the clutch with an inventive solution to this life-or-death emergency situation.

Cronin, author of so many giggle-worthy best-sellers, including Diary of a Worm, Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type (Caldecott Honor Book) and its sequels, Duck for President (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards)) and such wiggle-worthy hits as Bounce and Wiggle (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)), has provided a picture book with a bit of suspense just right for that Kindergarten community-helper unit's visit to the local firehouse or EMR station.