(Preschool) "See those bags? I smell breakfast! Crew? Get me to the curb!... Brakes? Squeal! Tail gate? SAY AH!" The garbage truck who narrates this down-and-dirty picture book is not a demure figure. His job description, which he outlines with healthy machismo, requires him to roar through the streets at night, doing work most people find repugnant. But without him? "You're on Mount Trash-o-rama, baby." Jim McMullan illustrates this unthinkable possibility with a New York cityscape almost buried in brown, orange, and green muck. His heavily outlined depiction of the hulking beast on his nightly rounds amplifies the text's brash tone. Words are tossed about on the page like trash bags in the hopper, reinforcing concepts such as "compacted" and "eject" while upping the attitude still further. ("Did I wake you? Too bad!") And fans of gross-out humor will appreciate the garbage truck's personal recipe for alphabet soup, the standout ingredients of which include dirty diapers and ugly underpants. "BURRRP!" From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In a starred review, PW called this tale of a New York City garbage truck "a hilarious homage to an unsung hero." Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

PreS-Gr 2-An enthusiastic garbage truck describes the hearty joys of its daily rounds. The personified vehicle, with windows as eyes and a grille mouth, is appropriately unapologetic for the noises and smells that come with the territory. After filling up with trash ("Whoa, those bags are way compacted"), it gives a loud burp, followed by an "alphabet soup" list of items it digests, including "Dirty diapers," "Puppy poo," and "Ugly underpants." Varied perspectives; the creative use of light; and a palette of grays, blues, greens, and yellow visually capture the rewards of garbage collecting in an appealingly gross package. The text appears in letters of assorted size, color, and boldness that aptly fit the lively directness of the narrative. The truck's brash good humor shows in its toothy grin and expressive eyes, but the human qualities do not detract from its obvious truckish essence. When it proudly admits that it stinks ("Whooooo-whee! Do I ever!"), the truck asks readers where they would be without it. The answer appears on the following spread with a garbage-covered city. The simple, but distinctive voice of the narrating vehicle makes this a fun and funny read-aloud, especially for young truck enthusiasts.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Ages 4-8. "Know what I do while you're asleep?" asks a grinning truck in an opening spread, "Eat your TRASH." This boldly illustrated book celebrates the garbage truck's noise and grinding power in a brisk, lively text filled with sound effects. The truck describes its night rounds with its crew, including an amusing A to Zof garbage, from "apple cores" to "puppy poo" to "zipped-up ziti with zucchini." Finally, the vehicle dumps its load at a river barge and heads home. The importance of its job comes through clearly: "Without me? You're on Mount Trash-o-rama, baby." But mostly this is just a loud, gleeful portrait of a big machine at work, illustrated with pictures that are just the right blend of heavy paint, dark colors, and whimsical humor to show the gritty, urban landscape and the swaggering, macho truck. For children who wonder what happens to the trash after it hits the barge, suggest Paulette Bourgeois' Garbage Collectors (1998) or Paul Showers' revised Where Does the Garbage Go? (1994). Gillian Engberg.

He's dirty; he's huge; he eats disgusting garbage; and he's gleefully stinky. ("Who am I? The garbage truck, that's who.") What preschool-aged boy could resist the terrific title or the ten-wheeled force behind this anthropomorphized garbage truck narrator from the McMullans (Papa's Song, 2000, etc.), a husband-and-wife team who did their own garbage truck research with the New York City Department of Sanitation. The instantaneously appealing cover announces the title in huge red letters with the unnamed, grinning truck ready to roll for a hard night's work "eating" bags of trash. But that's not all he eats: he also chomps through an entire alphabet soup of trash items, including some guaranteed gigglers such as dirty diapers, moldy meatballs, and smelly sneakers. The first-person story unfolds in a loud, brash tone, with lots of sound effects and descriptions of the truck's operational procedures, augmented by creative type treatments and a superb design that always shows the truck moving through the night from left to right. Watercolor-and-ink illustrations in a dark palette help create the moody nighttime setting, illuminated by the irresistible influence of this nocturnally noshing narrator's personality. Preschoolers and kindergartners who are fascinated by trucks and trash will eat this up. (Picture book. 3-7)