Jet Black Pickup Truck - Hardcover

Lakin, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0531058859 ISBN 13: 9780531058855

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1990

Synopsis

A trip down a winding dirt road to the dump becomes a magical ritual for a child and her grandmother, as they find other people's cast-off treasures to bring home

About this title

From School Library Journal:

A little girl and her grandmother are off in a battered black pickup truck to take their trash to the dump. The outing proves to be a recycler's dream, quite unlike a visit to the dump one encounters in real life. The little girl has a marvelous time resurrecting a barber's chair, a doll, some gorgeous tattered clothing, etc., and then it's time to gather the day's treasures and go home. Most children scrounge around among adult castoffs, but in these days in which they must be careful of the very real dangers potentially concealed in disposable waste, the wisdom of portraying a dumpsite as a treasure trove is questionable, and surely few responsible adults would support the idea of children donning the tatty and unsanitary garments found there. The doggerel verse is fine, but the illustrations present a problem. "Grammy," whose granddaughter seems to be about 6 or 7, appears to be 30; the jolly rabbits and pigs who observe the action are oddly constructed and come equipped with strangely human eyes. --Joan McGrath, Education Centre Library, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

White seagulls circle overhead as Grammy, accompanied by her little granddaughter, drives an old pickup truck to the dump to unload their trash. To the child, the dump is an enchanted place where she amuses herself climbing on the mounds of rubbish, picking up a can here and a hat there. Her absorption with these newfound "toys" transforms the scene into a lavish playground as the child's imagination takes wing. Lakin tells this unusual tale in clever, terse couplets ("Tired old rusty wheel. / Wonder how this bike must feel?"). Hoffman's sparkling watercolor-and-pencil drawings, rendered in an almost surreal palette, have a modernist, fairy-tale quality--though her art depicts more romantic surroundings than the fetid, overloaded landfills one is likely to find. In an age where objects are discarded rather than fixed and passed on, the implications of this ingratiating story are well worth considering, even if the abandon with which the pair handles and tries things on is a bit disconcerting. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0531058859
• ISBN 13: 9780531058855
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Hoffman Rosekrans