Review: Colonel Trash Truck

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Hi, I'm Esmé, and I'm two and a HALF! I've got another fun book to share with you today.

Colonel Trash Truck: Keeping the Planet Clean and Green is written by Kathleen Crawley and illustrated by Manuel Conde. It's a fun rhyming book recommended for ages 3-6. Through creating a hero of sorts in the Colonel, this hardcover 24-page picture book prompts kids to throw trash away, recycle, and clean up after themselves. For more information (including a puzzle game, song, and video) or to purchase it for $14.95, check out www.ColonelTrashTruck.com.

Here's what the publisher has to say about it:

"Colonel Trash Truck is a likable, fun-loving hero who is extremely focused on his mission to win the garbage war. He sees the natural world as a beautiful gift that we all need to appreciate and protect. Colonel Trash Truck believes that cleaning up trash and recycling is something that we all must do, and he wants nothing more than to have kids join him in his quest. Read along to find out how he convinces kids to help clean up our world!"

Here's what I got to say about it (Mommy's in dark, mine in light):

• What's the book about? A train!
• No, it's about a truck - a trash truck. What's his name? Colonel!
• What does Colonel Trash Truck do? He sweeps!
• What color is he making the world stay? Green.
• Do you like green? Yeah!
• What's that? A litterbug! Four hands - they are throwing trash down.
• What does Colonel Trash Truck eat? Garbage! Karunch, Karunch!
• Look, there are lots of Colonels! Yes, there are lots of trucks that sweep and clean to make our world beautiful.
• Look, he's picking his nose! What should he do? Use a tissue!

Mommy's Notes

This is a fun book with comic-like illustrations, likable characters, and entertaining text. The rhyming text catches attention and makes it easy to read aloud. There are references to things like boogies, loogies, and cat and dog doo doo, so if you're interested in prim and proper, this probably won't work for you, but it sure will amuse the majority of kids I know!

Esmé hasn't had a strong fascination with big machinery and trucks and the like yet, and we don't have trash pickup where we live, so she didn't have much of a frame of reference for the trash truck. However, throwing away trash and cleaning up are things we are working on, and she's fascinated with recycling (why juice boxes go in the trash while water bottles go in the recycle container, etc.), and this book was a good conversation starter on those things. It puts serious topics on a kid's level in a fun way.

If you're looking for an introduction to trash handling, recycling, and all things green for the younger set, this is a great book to start with. Plus, it's "been printed using the highest possible percentage of post-consumer waste that current technology allows," so your purchase supports the greening of the printing industry... :)

Thanks to Pump Up Your Book Promotion for the review copy of this book.