The day I had a fire truck

In the third picture book in Wall's The Day I Had series, a young boy and his friends are put in charge of a fire truck for a day. Blonde-haired, fair-skinned Luke and his dad are cleaning out the garage when Luke's happy, stumpy-legged dog Bobo draws Luke's attention to the big red fire truck parked outside. The truck has a note inside from the fire chief asking Luke to put together a crew and take over for the day ("the other firefighters and I have taken the day off to check out the new water park"). Luke and Bobo drive around to collect their friends (who have diverse skin and hair tones): bookworm Noah, go-getter Emma, and accident-prone Mikey. Together, they learn about firefighting equipment, rescue a cat from a tree, and put out a fire. Then Luke's mom calls over the radio, telling him to come home and clean his room. Wall narrates using straightforward prose that doesn't draw attention to itself--except in cases of deliberate emphasis, such as Mikey's blue-font exclamations when he knocks over a fire hydrant. Duck's illustrations, which combine hand-drawn and computer imaging techniques, afford a good sense of character and make astute use of the two-page spreads. The dinosaurs and bulldozer from previous The Day I Had books appear as toys alongside a toy fire truck, hinting deftly at Luke's powers of imagination. A gentle little adventure filled with learning and friendship. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.