Little Blue Truck Leads the Way by Alice Schertle

Little Blue Truck Leads the Way Reviews

• 
  Jasmine from How Useful It Is

  Read for my toddler’s nap time. A blue truck dealing with traffic. Lots of cars for little ones.
  
  Read from kindle unlimited.
• 
  booklady

  Found this when I was searching our local bookstore looking through the board book section of the children’s section. Where were these when our children were growing up? Instead, we just gave them young children’s/picture books which we reassembled and taped and reassembled and taped, until we finally had to throw them out, which is why we have so few books left today for that age group.
  
  Now there is a plethora of wonderful board books to choose from—old favorites as well as many new ones, like this little one about trucks and cars!
  
  The hero of this series, the Little Blue Truck, visits the Big City and gets stuck smack dab in the middle surrounded by all the angry, self-important bigger vehicles. But he wisely keeps his cool and reminds them, “You might be fast and I might be slow, but one at a time is the way to go.” The proud stretch limo wants to go first, but his engine dies, and when the mayor gets to give a speech, he was more impressed with the courtesy and agility, not to mention wisdom, of the Little Blue Truck who then leads a parade through the city with the mayor waving at everyone from the cab of Little Blue.
  
  A cute rhyming story with a great message! Parents and little ones alike will enjoy reading this over and over! (And there are plenty more in the series!)
• 
  Jessie

  It isn't quite as good as the first one, but it's still pretty darn cute.
• 
  Denise Lauron

  A wonderful children's book about taking turns. Little Blue gets his point across, yet again.
• 
  Thomas

  Little Blue displays true leadership capabilities when thrown into a new and unfamiliar settings
  
  Instead of being intimidated by the Street Sweeper and the Mayor’s Limo, he dispenses wisdom the whole city recognizes as the solution to their traffic problem, and subsequently leads the population in a parade celebrating their new “one at a time” policy.
  
  9/10. Will likely read 734 more times, one after the other, when my son decides we need to start over instead of moving on to one of the other, vastly inferior titles in his library.
• 
  Angelina Justice

  I still love the character and colors, but this book is too busy and abstract in comparison to the first book.
• 
  Russell

  Simple country folk teaches the busy city folk a seemingly better way to live, and brings inefficiency to their existence. Wrong lesson to be learned, and full of political grandstanding.
• 
  Bea

  Too preachy for me but the children in my ones and twos class like it
• 
  Avery Groshans

  Good
• 
  Shannon

  I was quite happy to find this book, a sequel to
  Little Blue Truck which is very popular here. This one follows the same kind of pattern, involving Little Blue helping someone else and saving the day with his good manners and considerateness.
  
  He's in the big city, which has something of a 30s look to it, and completely overwhelmed and amazed at how big and fast and rather scary it is. The other vehicles on the road are all so impatient and bossy and soon a traffic jam ensues, and the mayor's limousine dies so Blue offers him a ride, and they all continue on their way in single-file rather than pushing and shoving.
  
  While these books do carry a message, a moral, I find I don't mind them too much - there's just something nice about the way the text flows and the message has a good lead-up, as well as being a good lesson for children to learn (hell, and adults as well).
• 
  Jess

  A very good message about the importance of taking turns, and full of things that go (trucks, buses, taxis, limos, motorcycles). But there's an anti-urban undercurrent that bothers me far more than my little son.
• 
  Chance Lee

  A heartwarming and imaginative fantasy in which someone from the country drives around a city and suddenly all vehicles become courteous drivers who obey all traffic laws and stop honking.
• 
  Chrisanne

  I liked the visual exercise it was for my daughter. But she's a bit young for them.
• 
  Andrew

  These illustrations are appealing and the rhyme is fun, so I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I was bothered, as the songwriter David Wilcox would say, for metaphorical reasons.
  
  Little Blue Truck wanders starry-eyed into the big city, but is quickly discombobulated by the traffic flow. The other city cars, including a city bus, grocery delivery truck, street sweeper, taxi, and mayor's limousine are mean and aggressive to Little Blue Truck. Little Blue dispenses his simple, folksy advice about going one at a time, and (after the mayor's limo gets "over-heated" and Little Blue offers him a ride) the whole city throws Little Blue a parade!
  
  I know what I'm about to say sounds like a parody, or sarcastic, but I promise you, it is not. This whole tale reads as urban-phobic. Yes, it is good to be kind and patient, but I don't really think this story teaches those values. Little Blue transports himself to a new environment and has all the answers. The author manipulates the world around to ensure that this is so. Little Blue learns nothing. He doesn't change. The world changes for him. He doesn't have to learn to adapt to new circumstances; the world alters itself to the gravitational pull of his naivete.
  
  You might say, "Chill out, dude, it's just a children's book, it's not that deep." But I disagree! Children's books are among the most powerful to shape people's worldviews due to the impressionable nature of the audience. Alice Schertle has the tools to write good children's books, but I don't think she is thinking hard enough about the messages her art is sending.
• 
  Mira Prater

  This blue truck, well he led the way.
• 
  BrookeLynn

  I don't get it.
• 
  Jessica Calaway

  1 - 3 years
• 
  Aneesa

  Nice premise: a traffic jam turns into a parade. But not as seamlessly executed as the original.
  
  Even before we read this book, 5yo asked me if women can be mayors. (Then she was surprised to hear we live in a city, and not just on an island!) Children's book authors are trying to create characters and scenarios that are simple but end up filling their books with stereotypes.
• 
  Beckie

  As always, a favorite.
• 
  Melissa

  Trying to be fair, this book has good points and bad. I dislike it because when we show behavior we DON’T want kids to do, they become very curious about that behavior and emulate it. Much of this book shows negative behavior — one vehicle after another says things like, “Shove on, Shorty!” or “Hey! Better move, little beeper!”. Yes, in the end, everyone gets along. They all get in a line and celebrate how great the Little Blue Truck is. But that doesn’t change the take-away for a kid.
  
  The other thing I don’t like is that the book just ends. Everyone is celebrating Little Blue, and then we see his backside leaving the city. The first time I read it, I thought I had missed a page.
  
  Oh, right… the good parts. Well, it’s hard not to like Little Blue himself. He’s cute, folksy, and friendly. I also think the illustrator did a nice job of being inclusive in terms of gender and color. I like the rhythm of the words, too.
  
  More minor concerns: What is with the way the people are waving? Am I the only one who thinks they either look like they’re giving a “slow down” sign or the Nazi salute? The waving hands are just weird… Oh, and the cars are on the wrong side of the road in one scene. I don’t think this was meant to depict England.
  
  Link to very detailed review:
  https://oacb.wordpress.com/2018/07/03...
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• 
  Ashley

  I vote Little Blue Truck for the book character of the year. Alice had me read this one to her FIVE times in a row. By the fourth time through, she was reading the whole thing out loud with me. She adores this little blue truck. The books have an excellent message. In this one, Little Blue Truck has to make a delivery in the city where the other vehicles cut one another off and yell. Little Blue Truck, the anomaly, teaches the other cars to help one another and not be in a rush and go one at a time through the streets to get to where they need to go. He warms the cockles of my heart.
• 
  Michele

  This story was just okay... kind of a disappointment after the very cute
  Little Blue Truck. Unfortunately, my kids like me to read this one as much as the first... and it's just not as enjoyable.
  
• 
  Tyler Mower

  4.5 stars but I can’t give that.
  
  As one who reads this story at least twice a week with my little boy (definitely a favorite of his), for me, there are four big take aways that make this book so good.
  
  FIRST - I am always a fan of a children’s book that has good rhyming cadence. From beginning to end, this story uses a flow that is easy and natural to read. No having to reread sections to figure out how to get the rhyme to sound uninterrupted.
  
  SECOND - I like that Little Blue Truck is a country dweller and that going to the city isn’t something he does often. In the hustle and rush of the big city, Blue helps us remember the values of patients, stepping up to serve others, going out of one’s way to see someone else’s needs met, humbly chastening others to realize the world is filled with people besides ourselves, and we can treat everyone with respect. Solid values taught by such a simple story.
  
  THIRD - any time an artist can use classic icon to depict a common stereotype is a fun visual Easter egg. Look for the ketchup slathered hotdogs. Respect to all service members seeking to keep our streets safe and heeding the call to serve and protect at the risk of their own lives.
  
  FOURTH - Despite the straightforward nature of the book, I have to wonder if the theme is much deeper. The first page has Little Blue Truck driving in the countryside trailing a litter of skunks. All 5 of the skunks have their tails raised. Following this page Little Blue enters a massive city with his humble goods, which I presume he is going to sell. In no time like a nightmare he is being nearly run off the road, crashed into, and bossed around. Despite the hectic nature of the traffic new cars conglomerate around Little Blue, one of which is carrying the most important person of the city. A spin of events now has Little Blue being the leader, at the head of a parade. Everyone loves him, celebrates him, and cheers him on. I have to wonder if Little Blue was dreaming the whole time. ??
  
  I recommend this book to all. It is a good one!
• 
  Wordsmith J

  My two-year old LOVES this one; it's his favorite of the "Blue Trut" books. The transition from the country into the loud, fast city is near and dear to my heart, as one who moved from the farm into Chicago as a young adult...I feel for Little Blue! The impatience and rudeness one can experience for seemingly no reason in a new setting is something that really hit home to me, and I remember, very vividly, wanting to just throw up my hands and say, "Hey! Everybody relax! You're making it worse by yelling and honking. Just chill out and go one at a time!" My kids are exposed to urban environments from birth, and experience the rural life at their grandparents', so they won't have that same experience...but I sure did.
  
  My son absolutely loves how busy the pictures are, and has learned so many new words, pointing at all the things in the illustrations and having us label them. There's more going on in these pics than in, say, the original "Little Blue Truck," and he's in the developmental stage right now of poring over pictures and wanting to learn all the words for everything in them. The illustrations in this are great for that, and one of the trucks even says "Sam's Grocery" on the side, which delights my Sam.
• 
  Abby Hargreaves

  As a little blue farm truck travels through the big city, he takes notice of the buildings and other vehicles and their purposes around him. As in many metropolitan areas, lots of traffic means a traffic jam. When the mayor, sitting in a limo, is kept from his destination when the limo's engine fails, the mayor gets a ride from the little blue truck, who quickly becomes a hero of the city and spreads his message of taking turns and sensible driving practices in the city. There's plenty and then some to look at in this board book, leaving lots of material to introduce and discuss. A fun rhyme scheme brings new words for the audience to learn and the rhymes have the benefit of great moral content.