Big Rig Rescue!

A semi “haulin’ tons of scrap” has rolled over in a swirling snowstorm. The driver is unhurt, but getting this big rig cleared off the road is going to take some serious towing muscle. First on the scene is 14-wheeler Big Orange, whose bearded, pale-skinned driver narrates the story. After ensuring safety at the site (“A tanker arrives to drain the fuel”) and slicing through a twisted guardrail (“I love my metal-cutting rescue saw”), the narrator tries to lift the trailer with strategically placed airbags and winching—one of many vivid procedural scenes. But the toppled rig refuses to budge until another tow truck, Big Blue, arrives, piloted by a tan-skinned figure with a long ponytail and pink gloves. The two drivers hook cables onto either side of the semi, and with some get-’er-done engineering (“We run my line through a snatch block on the trailer to give us extra power”), the semi is righted (“Great roll, everyone!”), and it’s back onto the icy road. Gall’s (Jumbo: The Making of the Boeing 747) storytelling is as muscular as the rigs he celebrates: precisionist-style renderings continually move around and over the scene to satisfy the curiosity of truck aficionados, while detail-rich, matter-of-fact prose honors their enthusiasm and knowledge. Ages 3–5. [em]Agent: Erica Rand Silverman, Stimola Literary. (Jan.) [/em]