Love Is a Truck

Novesky and Gillingham follow Love Is a Tutu with a lighthearted, vehicle-centric reflection on love. Some of the analogies in Novesky’s mostly unrhymed verse work better than others: the idea that “Love is a loader. Love is a lifter” in one constructed-themed scene has real resonance, compared to lines that just name-check vehicles (“Love is a dump truck, rounded with dirt./ A bulldozer, a digger, a rolling cement mixer”). Gillingham’s clean graphics showcase one child’s very evident love of toy trucks; the brown-skinned, overalls-clad child’s gender isn’t apparent, a reminder that truck love is universal. Ages 2–6. (Nov.)