Adventures with Wink & Blink: A Day in the Life of a Garbage Truck!

“Every time they dump the trash, I break out in a rash, when that lovely garbage truck is here.” This lyric from a music video in Adventures with Wink & Blink: A Day in the Life of a Garbage Truck pretty much exemplifies the writing. Wink and Blink are odd-looking creatures from “The Land of Imagination” who take three ethnically-representative children to the Magic Movie Theater to see how garbage trucks are made and operate. Viewers learn about the three main types of machines (front, rear, and side loaders), watch automated trucks in action, and take a trip to a landfill where the big rigs dump their loads (the importance of recycling is also touched upon). Unfortunately, there's a prolonged subplot about the children seeking three magic keys to send Wink and Blink back to the Land of Imagination (send them back, please!) that had my toddler so impatient he kept asking, “Is it over now?” Since waving to garbage collectors is the highlight of his Tuesday and his favorite book is Daniel Kirk's Trash Trucks, that's not a ringing endorsement. A better choice here might be Garbage Day (VL-11/94). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: K, P. (R. Reagan)