LITTLE BLUE TRUCK CONJURES UP A HARVEST-TIME HALLOWEEN ATMOSPHERE FOR YOUNG READERS

Little Blue Truck
by Alice Schertle (author) and Jill McElmurry (illustrator)
HMH Books for Young Readers
2016, 16 pages, 9 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches (board book)

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Little Blue Truck, an antique pickup, and his best friend, top-hatted Toad, take a ride through an autumn countryside, as owls, ravens, and black cats wait by the road for a lift to a barn celebration. On the way, they meet animals dressed in Halloween garb. These holiday revelers join the duo as they travel through the dusk to the party. The pair meets a duck masquerading as a ballerina, a sheep as a harlequin, a pig as a witch, and a cow as a queen. Evening gradually approaches, and the truck’s headlights cut through the darkness. A golden fall moon, orange pumpkins, exotic fall plants, and burnt umber trees fill the rolling, rural landscape. They arrive at their brightly-lit, festively decorated destination. Within the barn, guests bob for apples and sip punch. Rollicking musicians with accordion and banjo play music for dancing, as everyone joins in the fun. Finally, one last party guest appears, dressed as a ghost. Who could it be?

Vintage-inspired paintings created with sponge and brush conjure a harvest-time atmosphere, complete with grinning jack-o’-lanterns, golden ripened fields, falling leaves, and animals attired in lovely, ornate disguises. The rhyming storyline describes each partygoer, and the flap on each page lifts to reveal the costumed characters’ identity. A charming, humorously-illustrated story that wouldn’t frighten even the youngest reader, Little Blue Truck’s Halloween is perfect for fall. – S. Deathrage

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WE FOUND A HAT IS FULL OF BRILLIANCE, AND TO BE FULLY APPRECIATED, IT HELPS TO KNOW THE TRILOGY

We Found a Hat
by Jon Klassen
Candlewick
2016, 56 pages, 8.2 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches (hardcover)

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It’s a classic problem: two turtles, one hat. Well, maybe not classic, but you get the idea. In the just-released and last book of his Hat series, Jon Klassen’s wit shines. Though his previous two Hat stories feature different characters, they both begin with a common problem – a stolen hat. We Found A Hat, however, is all about the moments before the grab.

There is so much brilliance in this book, and to be fully appreciated, it helps to know the series, as the pace and place of each differs subtly but smartly. In I Want My Hat Back, we clod through the forest with a bear, who slowly comes to the realization of who stole his hat at a pace not unlike that of one waking up from a long winter’s rest. In This Is Not My Hat, readers tail an underwater chase that is slow but necessarily suspenseful, with images and ending that, like vision under water, are clear enough, but not quite. We Found A Hat, perhaps fittingly for the last in the series, takes place in the desert. Who better than turtles to force the reader to slow down and savor the moral agony of friendship versus fashion? In this barren landscape, there are sounds in the pictures – the shape of the cacti echoes that of the newly found 10-gallon hat and the rocks echoes the turtles’ shells. The overall design of word and text calls back to each of the previous books.

The only thing that could make this book better is if Klassen partnered with a milliner to offer a box set complete with accompanying headwear. One could only hope. – Mk Smith Despres

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

05/20/25