Fire Truck vs. Dragon — written by me, illustrated by Shanda McCloskey, and coming next March 10 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers — just received its first review. And it’s a good one from Kirkus:

From the title, fans of Barton’s Shark vs. Train (illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, 2010) will be prepped for some major fire-and-water action. The three child protagonists certainly anticipate a humdinger of a battle, but unfortunately, antipathy is not on the menu. Turns out, Fire Truck and Dragon are the best of buds. Worse, they won’t even take advantage of their natural gifts. … Barton deftly upsets expectations, both for those familiar with his previous book and newcomers who know what “versus” means. Laughs come equally from the disappointed children in the book as well as readers’ thwarted guesses as to what is going to happen.

There’s more good stuff in there, too. In fact, this one review brings up pretty much everything I’d want anyone to say about the book. Just to be clear, though, that phrase in the excerpt above is “disappointed children in the book,” not “children disappointed in the book” — a key distinction!