I Love You, Little Truck

David Miles is an award-winning and best-selling author and illustrator of more than forty books, including The Side-by-Side Declaration of Independence, The Interactive Constitution, Allegro, Unicorn and Horse, and other titles. He has worked as a designer, illustrator, and creative director, and he now runs Bushel & Peck Books with his wife, Stephanie. He's been named a CYBILS Award Finalist, Publishers Weekly Star Watch Nominee, Trvst Changemaker, New York Book Show Award Winner, and Bill Fisher Award Finalist, among other accolades. He lives in Fresno, California, with his family.

Stephanie Miles is the author of several books for kids and has worked as a preschool teacher and special education aide. She graduated from Fresno State University with a degree in child development. Stephanie is also a warrior. In 2011, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). In her free time, she loves to cycle, garden, decorate, and count her son's freckles. She and her family live in California.

It all started as a kid, when Natasha was always asking for a pen to doodle. She even made puppy animations on PowerPoint and collages of her favorite shows in Photoshop. Today, she's a London-based illustrator, animator, and designer.

Big Truck reassures Little Truck as they prepare for bedtime.

As night falls, Little Truck, a small red pickup, poses different scenarios that might make Big Truck’s love waver. Each time, Big Truck explains that their love will never flag. Little Truck asks, “What if I were a big mixing truck? / I might get cemented. / I might get all stuck!” Big Truck replies, “Yes, problems aren’t fun. / But I’ll solve them with you, / each time, one by one.” And so the two continue, Big Truck comforting Little Truck through each concern. In a real tug of the heartstrings, eventually Little Truck wonders what will happen if they are ever apart. Big Truck replies, “there isn’t a distance / …That love cannot reach.” The rhyming text hits just the right rhythm and pace, reading like a lullaby and lending itself well to read-alouds. The illustrations are charming, all soft colors and rounded edges. Big Truck and Little Truck have simple expressions on their windshield faces and wheels that serve as limbs. Like Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd’s The Runaway Bunny (1942) and others before it, this is a heartwarming proclamation of love in all its forms between a caregiver and a child. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An irresistible presentation of unconditional love.(Board book. 2-4)

PreS-K–Sweet, gentle rhymes introduce readers to Little Truck as they get ready to go to bed. Little Truck questions what Big Truck means when they say, “I love you...With all of my heart.” Various scenarios play out where Little Truck pretends to be a variety of construction vehicles encountering problems. “What if I were a big mixing truck? I might get cemented. I might get all stuck!” However, Big Truck assures them that their love will never go away.

VERDICT Sure to be a hit with young construction lovers, and comforting for any child worried about all those “What ifs.”