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.
The novel is supposed to take place in the future, but the setting is ultimately a fantasy world based on a rural desert town (as in the Australian outback or the western United States).
He befriends a group of rebellious adolescent dog-vehicles (who are disliked by the citizens of the small town where they live) 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.
[3] A La Trobe University review of the book is positive overall, stating that it is entertaining with a straightforward storyline and linear plot.