Scooper and Dumper by Lindsay Ward

 Lindsay Ward's Please send balloons has always been one of my favorites, and I was intrigued to see what her new book would be like, especially since it features two busy winter snow vehicles, a popular topic in my Midwest area!

Scooper, a bright yellow front loader with a cheerful red bow, and Dumper, a chilly blue dump truck with a snow plow, are good friends and enjoy working together. Scooper stays in her yard and scoops and moves the salt, since her big wheels make it difficult for her to traverse the snowy roads and Dumper transports the salt and plows the roads. Although they work separately, they both depend on each other as shown in their refrain, "Clear the road./Salt the street./Work together,/can't be beat!"

When the big city is in trouble, Scooper loads up Dumper and sends him on his way to help - but when Dumper gets stuck and tips over, who will help Dumper? Can Scooper leave her yard and venture out to help?

The art is in hues of winter blues, with a splash of yellow for Scooper as she works her way through the scenes of snowy catastrophe. All the cars have big, cartoon eyes, and the pages are peppered with white snow, falling, blowing, and drifting. The story is written in rather halting rhyme, and this and the predominance of blues were disappointing to me - it's hard to pick Dumper out of the other cars and the snow and the rhymes didn't always match the action. However, most kids will be perfectly happy with the boppy rhythm and won't particularly notice if it doesn't make much sense. I'm a bit ambivalent about giving vehicles a gender, but on the other hand if you don't mark it in some way everyone defaults to making them male. Which, again, why are vehicles gendered... it was nice not to have to mentally remind myself to vary the pronouns when I read it though. I personally would have made both female, so the "male" truck isn't going out to work and the "female" isn't alternately left behind and then worrying about leaving her yard.

Verdict: While this certainly isn't a classic, like Katy and the Big Snow, there aren't so many snowplow books that I'd turn up my nose at it; it's perfectly acceptable and will add some variety to a limited selection for my vehicle fans. If you live in a place with lots of snow, or have dedicated fans of these and other vehicles, this is an acceptable additional title to add to your core collection.

ISBN: 9781542092685; Published January 2021 by Two Lions; Review copy provided by publicist; Donated to the library.