When my brother Nathan, the youngest in my family, was a toddler, our
neighbors had a massive pile of dirt in their yard. I don't recall why
the dirt was there, but it seemed it remained for quite a while, and
Nathan and our neighbor liked nothing better than to sit on the top of
that pile and play together, usually with toy trucks in tow. In Mercer
Mayer's Just a Dump Truck, Little Critter and his friends are
happy to play in the dirt. They don't have a massive pile like Nathan
did, but there's enough stray dirt to build little fortresses with the
aid of big toy construction vehicles.
Just a Dump Truck is set up exactly the same way as Just a Tugboat.
Instead of playing with boats in the creek, Little Critter and his
buddies play with trucks in the dirt. Instead of imagining himself
pulling boats in and out of the harbor, Little Critter sees himself
driving his dump truck around all day, getting loads of rocks and dirt
from his friends in orange diggers and dumping them out at a
construction site.
It's all very straightforward and dull.
It's odd, but these forays into Little Critter's imagination seem to be
the least creative of the series. We get a little bit of insight into
how the foundations of homes are built, but other than that, there's
just not a whole lot going on in this story. Little Critter pretends to
drive a dump truck. In his imagination, he does. Then it's back to the
dirt pile with Little Critter playing with his pals again. Not really a
lot to chew on there.
Many young children, boys especially,
seem to have a fixation on toy trucks; this book might be fun for such
truck-loving souls. But it's just a little too boring for my taste.
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