Review by Booklist Review
Another book about garbage trucks? Well, yes, but instead of focusing on a swaggering, loudmouthed vehicle, as Kate McMullan does in I Stink! (2002), this book stars a couple of pigs. Leaping out of bed early in the morning, the pigs watch two garbage trucks groaning, gobbling, and grinding as they make their noisy rounds. Hillenbrand's textured illustrations, in egg tempera and ink on canvas, depict the machines as giant, mechanical toads on wheels. The midnight-blue background gradually lightens to cream as daylight comes and the garbage workers (also pigs) pick up their loads, including cast-off furniture and dirty diapers. After the big buildup, the end is rather tame, but the rhyming text is as descriptive as the art (Gooey, gloppy. / Slimy, sloppy. / Truck's a rolling bug buffet. / Flies a-buzzin' by the dozen-- / lapping up that cheese souffle ).\b The antics\b of three dogs drooling after the trucks in anticipation of fallout extend the comedy. --Julie Cummins Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Rhythmic, rhyming language abounds as two piglets welcome the early-morning arrival of a pair of "Rumbling, roaring" garbage trucks. All of the offal details are here as the green behemoths gobble up everything from apple cores and dirty diapers to broken furniture. Smiling porcine workers, with "Greasy gloves-sticky boots-/stains a-plenty on their suits," feed the beasts while "Flies a-buzzin'/by the dozen" enjoy a feast at the "rolling bug buffet." After completing all of the "Crushing,/cramming,/screeching,/slamming," the vehicles thunder away, leaving the youngsters to re-create the action with their toy replicas. Done in ink and egg tempera on canvas, the vivacious two-page paintings convey the text's enthusiasm and energy. The trucks, shown from the rear and personified with mouthlike hoppers and red brakelight eyes, gleefully munch their way through an array of vividly colored refuse. The pigs are appealing, and readers can follow the antics of their dogs as they rush outside to be part of the fun. Pair this onomatopoeic offering with other tongue-tingling read-alouds, such as Kate McMullan's I Stink! (2002) and Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha's Trashy Town (1999, both HarperCollins), for a crash-bang storytime on a perennially popular topic.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Two young pigs eagerly awaken one morning to the sounds of the garbage truck outside their bedroom window. Lively descriptive language--""Gooey, gloppy. / Slimy, sloppy. / Truck's a rolling bug buffet""--and a bright green bottomless pit of a garbage truck with red headlights for eyes and a gaping ""mouth"" add to the thrill as the pigs watch the garbage collectors at work. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fans of Kate and Jim McMullan's I Stink! (2002) will welcome this look-alike, sound-alike return visit, as a pair of bright green trucks with backward-looking red eyes and huge mouths (even, in one startling scene, an oversized tongue) consume with relish a smorgasbord of broken furniture and garbage: "Rotten eggs? / Apple cores? / Pack 'em in--the engine ROARS. / Stinky diapers? / Coffee grounds? / Load it UP and smash it DOWN." It's all served up by a crew of cheerful pigs in overalls as an audience of dogs (plus a pair of exuberant piglets in an upstairs room, awakened by the din) looks on. Coloring the urban backdrops purple for this predawn banquet, Hillenbrand effectively captures the ickiness of all the soiled or overripe "entres," but leaves the sidewalks and battered cans neat and litter free as the trucks careen off to their next stop. Young audiences will be happy to crash and bash right along with these familiar mechanical Wild Things. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
