TITLE: Little Taco Truck by Tanya Valentine and Jorge Martin (Schwartz & Wade Books, April), 40 pages, $17.99
STORY: An orange-yellow-blue taco truck with a red pepper on its roof has a happy sales spot in the pastel color-blocked city, next to a truly garish green tree.
Vegetarian and carnivorous animals with anthropomorphic jobs in construction line up politely to eat the tacos. That's weird when you think about what goes into tacos, but this isn't a story about animal nature. Even the alligator wears a hard hat.
No, this is a story about human nature.
A bunch of other food trucks discover the spot. Miss Falafel is the first, and she gets there before he does. She is bright blue and hot pink with a yellow bowl of perky, alive-looking falafel on her head.
He knows he's supposed to share so he hurries away, fretting.
But she beats him there again the next day, and with her come Annie’s Arepas, olive-drab Jumbo Gumbo and so many other clashingly colored trucks there's no place for Little Taco Truck.
Then the murderously pink Hello Gelato bumps into him.
The taco truck flees, running his wipers to hide his tears.
He tries staking his claim in the middle of the dark purple night but falls asleep. When his rivals arrive with the dawn, they begin to crowd him out again — until he puffs up his tires and claims his place.
And nobody gets angry.
The colors made me a little queasy, but this is a reassuring story about competition.
Read to Me is a weekly review of short books.
Style on 04/29/2019