Jon Scieszka' Truckstown Review

My son got a new book that he really loves.  The book is Jon Scieszka's Truckstown Smash! Crash!  It turned out that the book had a web site listed on the dust cover and since he liked the book so much I decided to check it out. 

Truckstown is a town that has several characters that are different kind of vehicles, such as an ice cream truck, a semi, a dump truck, a garbage truck etc.  Smash Crash was about Dan the Dump Truck and Jack Truck who is a semi.   

On the web site there is an opportunity to read Jon Scieszka's blog.  There is also an intro to the book Smash! Crash!

There is also a brief introduction to the entire series, and an introduction to all of the re-occuring characters in the series. 

You will also get to see a picture of the author and all of the illustrators as well as read a brief bio on each of them.  The three illustrators are:  David Gordan, Loren Long, and David Shannon who wrote and illustrated the No David! books.

There is also of course a pictured listing for each of the books in the series, there are board books, regular books, and even coloring and activity books.  So if your child really get in to the series they can color the characters.  If you click on the pictures of each of the books you will have an opportuntiy to purchase that book.  You don't buy them through the Trucktown site though. You are given a list of retailers that you can choose to buy the book from.  Just choose a retailer and it will take you right to that stores web page, and directly to the desired book.  The books are very reasonably priced, most are only $6.99.

If you click on the teachers and librarians section of the web site you can see locations where Jon Scieszka will be appearing.  You will also see some activity print outs that go along with the books.  These are printouts that teachers can hand out to students, or that librarians can give out.  But it is just fine to print them out for your own child. There is a color by number print out, a maze, a matching game, among other printouts. 

If you click on down loads you will see the same printable pages I mentioned above, you can also obtain Truckstown screen saver.

Clicking on the News section will allow you to see some things written about the author in the media. 

Now For The Fun Stuff

When you first enter the site you have a choice to either go the adult area or the Kid Zone. If you go to the Kid Zone you can play online games (well your kids can play on line games).

There is a drag and drop game where you can drag a character in to the scene and drag it around however you like.  My 4 year old really likes doing this.  The child can also print out a license to read.  There is also an online coloring activity, where you click on a color and then click on the picture and the color will appear there. 

There is also a Road Ride Game where you move colored bricks, by dragging and dropping according to the color shown on the path, you place the bricks on the path so that Melvin the Cement Mixer can move forward.

The final game is a matching game, where you have to match up each vehicle with another. 

Weather or not you have read any of Jon Scieszka's books the web site can be fun for a little one to go on and play the games and do the activities, or you can print out activities for your child to do.  There are not a ton of activities, but there are enough to entertain a 4 to 6 year old for a while. 

My son really enjoyed playing on the site, and enjoyed doing a couple of the printables I printed out for him. 

If you have a young child that enjoys vehicles, check out this web site.