Truck Dogs

Blurb

Truck Dogs: A Novel in Four Bites is a children's adventure/science fiction novel by Australian author Graeme Base, who is famous for his large picture books such as Animalia. It was published in 2003 and nominated for a CBCA 2004 Book of the Year for younger readers. The novel is supposed to take place in the future, but the setting is ultimately a fantasy world based on a rural desert town. All of the characters are caricaturized, anthropomorphic dogs of various breeds, part biological and part machine. Their lower bodies are formed by the chassis and wheels of some kind of modern vehicle, often a truck. Reviewers have referred to the novel as a meeting of Hell and the Book of Revelation
The story follows a young dog-vehicle who longs for adventure. He befriends a group of rebellious adolescent dog-vehicles and an old loner mechanic. They have to choose where they stand when a renegade gang arrives and attempts to steal the town's precious gasoline resources and threatens harm.
The novel includes numerous color plates illustrated by Base picturing the characters and their individual make and model. Base introduces the novel as if it had been told to him by his dog.