Ladybug Nominee

Big Truck Little Island by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick Press, 2022)

That big truck is stuck! How will the island residents get where they’re going? A tale of community and ingenuity inspired by a true story.

When a big truck and its big load get stuck on a narrow road, traffic on the little island comes to a halt. Some cars need to go south and some have to travel north. How will Meg get to her swim meet? What about Barry’s ballet class? Luckily, the kids come up with an ingenious solution: why not just swap cars? Inspired by an incident that happened on Vinalhaven, Maine, Chris Van Dusen tells a fun tale of resourcefulness and community through clever, rhyming wordplay and whimsical illustrations, sprinkled with plenty of cars and trucks for transportation-loving readers.

About Chris Van Dusen

Chris Van Dusen was born in 1960 in Portland, Maine. He has been writing and illustrating books since 2000 when Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee was published. He lives on the coast of Maine with his wife Lori and a yellow lab named Opal.
His website is https://www.chrisvandusen.com

Activities & Links

• Take a video visit to Chris Van Dusen's studio as he works on this book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vzvk8AnnlE 
• Reading Rockets (https://www.readingrockets.org/) talks with the author about his process and his background at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8FPBGNcPnM
  
• Learn more about Vinalhaven, Maine, where the event that inspired this story took place, in an article from Yankee Magazine which includes lots of great pictures https://newengland.com/travel/maine/vinalhaven-maine-guide/
• Activity sheets, including a maze and a word scramble from Candlewick Press are at https://www.candlewick.com/book_files/1536203939.kit.1.pdf 
• Teacher tips for talking about this book with kids are at https://www.candlewick.com/book_files/1536203939.btg.1.pdf
  

Suggestions for Further Reading

• If you want more books from Chris Van Dusen consider his two previous Ladybug Picture Book Award nominated titles: If I Built a House (our 2014 winner)
  or The Circus Ship
• If you want to read another story about cooperation consider Too Tall Houses by Gina Marino
• If you want to read more books about community check out https://nhbookcenter.blogspot.com/2022/02/ladybug-longlist-community.html
  
• If you are looking for more books about trucks consider Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle & Jill McElmurry or I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan
  
• Check out the other 2023 Ladybug Longlist titles about transportation at https://nhbookcenter.blogspot.com/2023/02/ladybug-longlist-transportation.html
• 
  
• If you want books about vehicles of all kinds check out the list at https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/reading-without-walls-road-rails-trails
  

This is one of ten titles nominated for the 2023 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

We will be posting information about a different nominee each Friday throughout the summer and will issue a pdf voters guide featuring all ten titles at Labor Day.