PreS-Gr 2-This mediocre adaptation of a classic tale is set in the West, where "vehicles roam from ranch to ranch." The ugly truckling knows that she is different from her brothers and sisters: her wheels are too small, she has no flat bed for hauling loads, and she has "two strange beams stuck out from the sides of her body." Ridiculed by the others, she speeds away in search of her true identity. After meeting a tractor, a cow, and a windmill, she sees the reflection of several aircraft in a pond, looks at her own mirror image, and discovers that she is actually a "beautiful airplane." Ranging from gloriously colored landscapes to vivid close-ups of the characters, the artwork is colorful and appealing. Unfortunately, the writing is flat and uninspired. Give your truck fans real tales about big rigs and stick with Hans Christian Andersen's original story.-Wanda Meyers-Hines, Ridgecrest Elementary School, Huntsville, AL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A combination of The Ugly Duckling and Are You My Mother? with a problematic ending. Out west, a mother truck looks over her new "trucklings." But one is not like the others: she has only three wheels, no flat bed, and two odd beams that stick out from her sides. After her brothers and sisters make fun of her, she runs away. On her journey, she asks a tractor, a cow, and a windmill if she's one of them, but she's not. Noticing her sadness, the windmill tells her that soon she'll know exactly what she is. Sure enough, as she gazes into the pond, she sees a familiar reflection in the water and hears a roar overhead; she's an airplane and finally she knows where she belongs. Children will recognize the motif in these pages, but the relationship with the mother truckling has no closure, which may leave adoptees or children who have vastly different personalities from their parents feeling insecure. Gordon's illustrations capture the feel of western ranches well and the anthropomorphized trucks, tractors, and windmill are emotionally expressive. Not for every child, but a new rendition of a beloved fairy tale that will appeal to many. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Way out west,"" a mother truck gives birth to a litter of trucklings, one of whom is distinctly different from her siblings. In this hybrid of ""The Ugly Duckling"" and Are You My Mother?, the unhappy misfit eventually discovers her true identity: she's an airplane. The story is unsatisfying, but the illustrations, on spacious double-page spreads, have an engaging cartoon-cinematic quality. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

PreS-Gr. 2. A felicitous rhyme makes way for a decidedly loose interpretation of Andersen's The Ugly Duckling,0 one that taps right into little ones' adoration of things that go vroom0 . A winsome baby "truck," whose appearance suggests that Mommy may have spent some time at the local landing strip, finds himself caught in his suspicious siblings' high beams. "Why do you have three wheels instead of four?" "You'll never be a good truck." Embarrassed and confused, the ugly truckling leaves the garage in search of her own kind. After a series of Are You My Mother?0 -style encounters, the runaway sees a cheerful squadron of airplanes overhead. An epiphany and a happy ending ensue. Though the pictures have the blocky, slightly garish quality one often sees in computer-generated artwork, Gordon borrows a few tricks from former employers Pixar and Nickelodeon to imbue his baby vehicles with high-octane cuteness. Most kids won't even notice that the notion of plunking inanimate objects into a classic tale of organic transformation is, in many ways, a deeply silly idea. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist

Gordon (Construction Countdown) reinvents Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling for the vroom-vroom set. Instead of a duck turned swan, his protagonist is a little airplane born into a family of trucks on the Western plains. Depicted as a wide-eyed, yam-shaped flyer with an adorable propeller nose, the Ugly Truckling is teased mercilessly by her siblings because "[her] wheels were small and narrow. She didn't have a strong, flat bed. And her chrome did not shine brightly under the stars." So she runs away, approaching a tractor, cow and windmill in her quest to find out who she is. The answer comes when she spots a flock of airplanes ("She wasn't an ugly truckling after all. She was a beautiful airplane"), and she flies off with them into the sunset. Employing desert colors, big-sky vistas and high-impact aerial perspectives, Gordon's painterly illustrations, coupled with the cute-as-a-button characters, will rev the engines of preschoolers obsessed with all things mechanical. But in reinterpreting Andersen's tale as a melancholy search for identity ("I'm not a tractor. I'm not a cow. I'm not a windmill. And I don't think I'm a truck either. I don't know who I am"), Gordon sets up a confusing contradiction with the cheerful illustrations. His truckling-duckling concept is clever but may be off the mark for this age group. Ages 3-7. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved