Good news for machine- and truck-loving tots! Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock, the New Zealand duo behind Roadwork (more on that later) are back with a new picture book called Demolition. As you might have guessed from the title, this time the mighty machines are working together to tear down a building. As in their previous book, Sutton’s repetitive rhyming text and onomatopoetic sound effects make this an exciting, age-appropriate read-aloud: “Swing the ball. Swing the ball./ Thump and smash and whack./ Bring the top floors tumbling down./ Bang! Clang! Crack!” From the wrecking ball to the excavator with dinosaur-like jaws that “bite and tear and slash,” Sutton and Lovelock take us through the demolition process. Noisy, action-oriented verses and clear, detailed illustrations depict giant bucket arms that ram the walls, mobile crushers that grind broken concrete, wood chippers that shred old wood, and huge hydraulic shears that sort the steel. (By the way, don’t worry if you don’t know the names of these machines. A one-page glossary in the back gives readers more information about the trucks seen at work.) Finally, the last two spreads reveal that all this tearing down is to make way for a colorful playground filled with kids: “Join the fun. Join the fun./ Run and climb and play./ Give three cheers! The job is done./ Hip…hip…Hooray!”
Published in 2008, Roadwork (also by Sutton and Lovelock) describes how roads are built and in the process, proves that it’s the journey and not the destination that counts. Oh, and what a noisy, exciting journey it is! The book begins with “Plan the road. Plan the road./ Mark it on the map./ Hammer in the marking pegs./ Ping! Bang! Tap!” and ends with the celebratory opening of the brand-new road (“Toot! Honk! Vroom!”). In between, accompanied by Sutton’s lively rhyming text, we see excavators, bulldozers, steam-rollers, graders, front-end loaders, dump trucks, and truck-mounted cranes doing their stuff: digging, scooping, lifting, sliding, rolling, sealing, and squashing. Lovelock’s airy fine-line illustrations (created with pigmented ink) make clear that it’s the construction trucks that are the stars of this show. The humans are just along for the ride, as these marvelous machines clear pathways, lay stones, roll the tar, and hoist signs. It’s every little truck lovers’ dream!
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What are some other good reads for truck-loving tots?
