87 - Drive by Nathan Clement - children's book review

drive nathan clement.jpg

Drive was published in 2008 (Boyd Mills Press, Inc.) and created by Nathan Clement.

Everyday daddy goes to work. He’s a truck driver and goes to work early in the morning. On this day, work is fairly routine (no major accidents with cars squashed under the big truck) and daddy gets home safely. He plays baseball with his son after a long day at work. The end.

Drive is roughly nine inches by eleven so it’s a fairly large picture book. The art is well done as the author varies the angles and positions carefully. You get a good feel of the day passing by from morning to evening.

I’m not the biggest fan of art done on the computer and the floor of the child’s room is one solid color. Couldn’t the author have drawn a carpet to make the room a little “warmer” like he did with the curtains? Also, none of the characters in this book have eyes which makes this story otherworldly.

On the first page, the father’s truck can be seen from his window. On the second, the back of the truck can be seen from the child’s window. I’m just wondering what this house looks like. The house must be made like an upside down L...

The text in this book is all limited to one sentence per page or fragments of sentences so it’s a fairly quick read (suitable for the three/four year old kids... I’m guessing).

Overall this book is fairly well made. Kids who read this might appreciate these big trucks more and what boy isn’t fascinated by big vehicles? Maybe the book could’ve gone into more detail about what it’s like to operate a big truck like this (back pain) but sometimes it’s best to keep things simple.

Recommended.

© Quigley Mark 2013