Dump Truck Duck (Review #2), written by Megan E. Bryant, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Elizabeth K.
Summary: Dump Truck Duck by Megan E. Bryant follows Dump Truck Duck and his friends, Dozer Duck and Digger Duck as they work together to build a new playground. With colorful illustrations and rhythmic sentences, the fictional story offers its audience a message about keeping a hard-working attitude and teamwork.

Straight Talk for Librarians: Dump Truck Duck will be beneficial to children learning how to read. The sentences are not only simple but also fun to read as there is an apparent rhyme scheme. The words are relatively simple and the plot is very easy to follow. There is a positive and optimistic mood/tone in the story - good for young students as it teaches children to stay positive despite fallbacks. The author also incorporates the literary device, onomatopoeia, utilizing words like “Rumble” and “Splat.” The inclusion of such words makes the story more engaging and fun to read. The author also includes lots of exclamation marks that further contribute to the playful and exciting mood of the story. The main characters in this story - Dump truck duck, Dozer Duck, and Digger Duck - prove to possess a hardworking nature and their touch nature is heavily emphasized throughout the picture book. This motivates the young audience to want to be like the ducks in the story and be tough like them. The plot allows the children to follow the ducks as they overcome numerous obstacles in their path to building a new playground for the park. The story also strongly stresses the theme of teamwork, giving the children a valuable lesson about accomplishing tasks with others. The illustrations of this book are very playful and engaging. The watercolor medium crafts a very soft tone, ultimately becoming quite pleasing to the eye. There is a broad spectrum of colors used in the illustrations, ranging from dark browns to soft yellows. The vibrancy of the colors with the simplicity of the drawings complement each other well, creating a good balance between both messiness and neatness. The inclusion of dump trucks and other construction vehicles will appeal to all of the young children who are fascinated by the big vehicles.