The Mixed-Up Truck gets teaching kids (and having fun) allegorically A-OK

Kids love trucks. Kids love cake. Kids love being silly. If you combine these you’ll get The Mixed-Up Truck, by Stephen Savage. It’s the story of a cement mixer and its first day on the job who means well, but keeps making simple mistakes. Kids make mistakes too. The Mixed-Up Truck is also an allegory for children that it’s normal to make mistakes.

When the truck arrives at the work site the crane is lifting, dump truck is dumping and the digger is digging. The truck (who is technically a cement mixer, but don’t tell them….) is sent to go get some powdery white cement. They go get some white powder and mix it up like the other trucks requested, but instead of making a building make a cake.

The other trucks correct him and send him out again. When the truck gets some more white, powdery stuff and mixes it up they get frosting for the cake. While yummy, it’s certainly not what the other work trucks need in order to finish their day. On the third attempt the truck finally goes to the cement factory, gets the cement and makes a big building that is a termite’s worst nightmare.

But by now all of the trucks had worked much harder than expected, are dirty and grumpy. The truck goes out one more time to get some white powder, mixes it with water and all of the trucks have a bubble bath.

The Mixed-Up Truck is good, silly fun for kids 2-7. The artwork is retro-modern, block style. It has shades of classic 60’s advertising, with the trucks being blocky, simple machines that young readers can relate to. Each page is packed with color, age appropriate vocabulary that a 6 year old can read and is short enough to re-read for a good night book.

On a subliminal level, the allegorical use of a truck that making mistakes who is letting kids know that it is OK to make mistakes is one that this age group will get immediately. That is one thing that our kids took away from the book. Kids, making mistakes, get out of here…..yeah, they goof up from time to time. However, we want them to do that because that’s how they grow and eventually make better decisions. The Mixed-Up Truck is on that all ages 2 through 7 will laugh at and love.