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PRESCHOOL
Barton, Chris

Fire Truck vs. Dragon

40 pp. | Little | March, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-0-316-52213-7 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-316-52209-0
(2) PS Illustrated by Shanda McCloskey. In Barton's Shark vs. Train (rev. 7/10), the rivals faced off against each other in a series of contests, and this companion book initially appears to follow the same playbook. The title and front cover tease an epic beast/machine showdown, but "it might surprise you that a fire truck and a dragon can in fact be good friends." So, sitting around a campfire, the dragon puts on a shadow puppet show to accompany the fire truck's scary story. And the pals bring "free-range potato salad" and "my famous firehouse beans" to a barbecue. Throughout, an audience of three kids has high hopes of seeing sparks fly and water blast; they're repeatedly left bemused and disappointed by the pair's camaraderie. Barton's speech-bubble text works exceptionally well with McCloskey's animated mixed-media illustrations, setting up our expectations before throwing us a curveball. The kids never say a word, but their actions and reactions are abundantly clear in the energetic art. "Wait. Do you think they'd be interested in that new thing we've been doing?" "Oh yeah! Where the two of us go head-to-head!" Finally! Or...not. A staring contest is not what the kids had in mind. But there's one last curveball in store, and it's definitely worth the wait. The visual humor will have listeners clamoring for re-matches, er, -readings.
Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

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