Big Rig Bugs by Kurt Cyrus Search Amazon for other books by or about Kurt Cyrus. Rating: Reviewed by: Bob Walch

Here's a slightly bizarre but fascinating take on bugs and trucks. Everyone knows that the lifting, sorting, digging, and hauling are the construction jobs delegated to heavy equipment and powerful trucks.

Kurt Cyrus invites young readers ages four and older to accompany him to a construction site where a worker throws away a half-eaten sandwich. That's not a very green thing to do. He's littering, but not to worry. When a crew of bugs finds the sandwich, they go to work clearing the area of debris.

A millipede, cricket, weevil, earwig, beetle, pickleworm, tumblebug, dragonfly, and a host of ants converge on the "spill" site and remove the sandwich. Soon the mess is gone and it's a job well done by this crew of small scavengers.

Besides the simple rhymed text, which is fun to read aloud, pay close attention to the small illustrations in the background that picture the actual type of equipment the featured bug mimics.

Actually, this is a pretty clever picture book that may completely change the way you and your child look at bugs. Next time you see a tumblebug lumbering along you may see a bulldozer. An earwig carrying a particle of food might remind you of a skip loader while a millipede, rearing up, has a strange resemblance to a large crane hoisting something.