Metro Yarn: Claude in the City by Alex T. Hill

Claude is a small, plump pooch who affects a red beret and matching sweater, and whose best friend is a shabby, red-and-white striped sock, Sir Bobblysock, who reeks slightly of cheese.

Claude's owners, Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes, leave for work early in the morning, leaving Claude pretty much to his own devices.

One morning Claude put on his beret.

"I think I will go to the city." he said.

Sir Bobblysock came, too.

The city is busy and a bit too noisy. But after befriending the pigeons, Claude looks at all the stores. And then he sees the one for him!

BETTY'S BERET BOUTIQUE!

Claude buys a bunch of berets in boxes, and the two head for the museum where they are happily admiring the exhibits when something astounding happens!

A naughty thief ran past them, carrying one of the sculptures.

She collides with Claude and his boxes with a CRASH!

Berets exploded!

The sculpture thief is apprehended, thanks to Claude, and he is declared a hero by the Mayor, who invites Claude and Sir Bobblysock to a fancy luncheon.

But Sir Bobblysock falls ill immediately after lunch, and Claude has to race him to the nearest hospital, where Dr. Ivan Achenbaum declares that Bobblysock needs an X-ray. Left to wait, Claude is bored and begins to snoop. Finding a long lab coat in the closet, Claude tries it on, just as a nervous nurse bursts in looking for a doctor to treat a crew of ailing acrobats. Protesting, Claude is dragged into an examination room just in time to diagnose the troop's malaise as a case of the "elevenses," requiring, as Winnie the Pooh would say, tea and "a little smackerel of something." Meanwhile, Sir Bobblesock is diagnosed as being down at the heel, requiring a bit of tricky darning by the head surgeon and earning an "I Was Darn Good in the Hospital" sticker.

In storytelling style that recalls H. A. Rey's Curious George, it's a wicked funny but happy outing in the big city in Alex T. Hill's Claude in the City (Peachtree Books). In Hill's series, Claude is a quirky, picaresque character portrayed in quaint British style by artist Hill in a wry, retro-style of illustration, keeping kids wondering what can possibly happen next. Other books by author-illustrator Hill include Claude in the Country and his latest Claude At the Beach.

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).