Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs.

The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals. What they should be is more thought provoking. They are cute and they are thought provoking. Lastly, some imaginative ones, and these will set kids smiling and perhaps thinking up a whole lot of their own: A castle is to build in the sand', 'A hat is to wear on the train', 'Eyebrows are to go over your eyes', 'Buttons are to keep people warm'. A just plain silly one: 'Little stones are for little children to gather up and put in little piles'. One that calls for a mental leap: 'A principal is to take out splinters'. An ordinary definition, and there are a lot like this one: 'A mountain is to go to the top'. The funniest definition: 'Hunh! Rugs are so dogs have napkins'.

Attractively laid out, each small page has on it one or two phrases- each accompanied by the miniscule drawings of Maurice Sendak reminiscent of the old British picture books. Though the definitions in this 'First Book of Definitions' may bring a few squeals of delight from the young mind making its first associations between the things he knows and what they make him think about- they are not up to the level of warmth and humor of Ruth Krauss' other work. When a book of imaginative nature such as this comes along, we get all excited, expect it to be top flight.

A hole is to dig by ruth krauss