By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Alex Rowe

Title: TruckDogs
Author: Graeme Base
Illustrator: Graeme Base
Publisher: Amulet Books
Number of Pages: 143

If want to read a book that is totally original, a book with brand new ideas that have never been seen before, you should read TruckDogs by Graeme Base. TruckDogs is really four different stories all intertwined into one book, and the whole book is the tale of the town of Hubcap which is populated by TruckDogs. A TruckDog is an animal that has a face of a dog and a furry truck for a body.

One young TruckDog, Sparky, is a Jack Russell / Ute. He is the son of the Mayor of Hubcap, Ms. Plugg. Sparky is just a few years younger than a local gang called the Mongrel Pack. Sparky looks up to the Mongrel Pack who are looked down on by the people of Hubcap. Hubcap citizens see the Mongrel Pack as a public nuisance. The Hubcap citizens chase the Mongrel Pack out of Hubcap into the desolate dessert. A local mechanic, Rex, a Red Setter / Tractor chases after the young TruckDogs. Rex is a mysterious character, what may be called a drifter. Rex has many hidden skills that you learn about throughout the book. When he leaves Hubcap, an adult TruckDog gang called the RottWheelers, comes and seriously terrorize Hubcap. They decide to lock up all of the citizens of Hubcap and take all of the fuel. What will the citizens of Hubcap do without any fuel and their youth in the dessert? That’s up to you to find out.

I loved this book. The story will constantly leaving you on the edge of your seat and you will never guess what will happen next. My favorite part was Graeme Base’s amazing illustrations. He did a profile and realistic drawing for each character. The profiles really brought the characters to life. The characters have realistic personalities even though they are an unrealistic species. Though the book was tremendous, sometimes it was a little confusing. If you hadn’t come across a character’s illustration yet it is nearly impossible to imagine what a character looked like by the short description of them. This made it easy to mix up characters. I would highly recommend this book to fantasy lovers ages eight through twelve. A similar book that I would recommend is Holes by Louis Sachar. (February, 2005)