""I like my guys to look awkwardly still," he said in an interview. "Like they don't really know what they're doing in the book.""
"The book opens with the lines "This is your truck. It is yours to have." The truck in question is red. It's got eyes instead of headlights, which move from side to side a bit, but otherwise, the truck doesn't do much. A dog hops into the cab. "Your truck can go fast," the book says. "I know it's not going fast right now. It is waiting for you." And then Klassen sets up the emotional tentpole of the book, by writing that when "you are ready to go," your truck can go and go and take you "as far away from here as you want." "But not right now," Klassen writes. "Not yet.""
""And you just spin out, as a parent, to be like, 'well don't go anywhere!'" he said."
A board book centers on a red truck presented as an owned object that remains still but full of potential. The truck has eyes, a dog climbs into the cab, and text reassures the reader that the truck can go fast when the child is ready. The narrative balances excitement and waiting, emphasizing the child's future ability and the parent's impulse to hold on. The title begins a trilogy exploring ownership as possibility and the emotional tension between present stillness and the promise of eventual adventure.
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