Jon Scieszka's Trucktown on the Move!

Little Simon Publishing
David Shannon, Loren Long, David Gordon
2009
Rating: Y

On the Move! is a board book and, therefore, is understandably low on complex content. It offers readers a series of friendly anthropomorphic work vehicles as they go about their daily tasks. Complete with interactive moving parts, this books is bright, colorful, and fun.

It also does some work against gender stereotypes. The first character we meet is "Wrecker Rosie" a smiling wrecking ball who is hard at work knocking down a building. While Rosie does have a pink wrecking ball, the stereotypical female features end there. She does not have pouty lips or long eyelashes. She's mid-stomp and clearly a tough, hard-working machine who is comfortably at home on the construction site. She gives young readers an example of a female in a male-dominated work environment and sends the message that it's fine for little girls to like trucks, too.

After meeting Monster Truck Max and Dump Truck Dan, we are introduced to a second female character, Rita the Ambulance (pictured on the cover above). While Rita does have some of the more traditional characteristics of a female anthropomorphized object (long eyelashes, big round eyes) and is shown being rescued from a ditch by Tow Truck Ted, she is no typical damsel in distress. She spends no time mooning over Ted or lamenting her brush with danger. She replies with a cheery "Thanks, Ted!" and follows it with "Now let's go rescue someone else!" Rita demonstrates that girls can have an important role in society while also showing readers that it's okay to mess up and to rely on others for help.

Bottom Line-
In eight pages, we get two examples of female characters defying stereotypical expectations. That's a pretty big accomplishment for a cute, short board book.