cover image The Mighty Street Sweeper

The Mighty Street Sweeper

Patrick Moore, . . Holt, $15.95 (24pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-7789-6

Moore, whose crisp digital cartooning has found a home in magazines ranging from Esquire to Family Fun , makes a winning children's book debut with this tribute to a distinctive truck. Much of the book's fun lies in its reverse-psychology hook—Moore extols the virtues of the street sweeper by first pointing out how it's actually not so mighty. "The biggest, fastest, most powerful truck... is not the street sweeper," he writes in mock solemnity, as he shows the bright orange hero truck toodling past a construction site filled with ostensibly more impressive vehicles (all the trucks are operated by animals). As the street sweeper continues on its working journey, Moore points out how its capabilities seemingly come up short when compared to other trucks it encounters—which also provides him with an opportunity to regale young aficionados with a veritable catalogue of heavy equipment. ("The boom pump can squirt tons of concrete. The street sweeper can squirt a small puddle of water"). But what ultimately matters, Moore tells his audience, is not what the street sweeper can't do, but rather what it does so well: "No other truck keeps the roads clean like the mighty street sweeper!" There's a life lesson lurking within those words, but much to his credit, Moore never belabors it. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)