Road Builders

Amazon.com
For children who are passionate about machines, especially the really big ones, Road Builders, cheerfully illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Simms Taback, is a wonderful find. Youngsters are introduced to the vast assortment of fascinating machines involved in building a road, and to the industrious crew of folks who operate these mammoth vehicles. Step by step, a road is born: dirt is scooped away by the power shovel, bulldozer, and backhoe, then the grader smoothes the ground as the other trucks arrive with cement and asphalt. Finally the power roller packs it all down, and the "striper" lays down the lines at the center of the road. But you'll have to read the book to figure out what the cherry picker does! Boldly illustrated with bright, saturated colors, Road Builders is a visually dynamic introduction to the people and machines that bring new roads to life. (Ages 2 to 6) --Marianne Painter


From Publishers Weekly
This soup-to-nuts explanation of how roads are constructed begins in an empty field and ends on a busy freeway, and it offers just the right amount of information for its intended audience. Readers watch as members of a road crew bulldoze, dig, dump, grade, pave, roll, paint, mark and light a new roadway--and then drive off into the sunset to their next job. Bolstered by Hennessy's ( Jake Baked the Cake ) concise text, Taback's ( On Our Way to the Forest! ) bold, attention-grabbing colors and oversized, up-close-and-personal illustrations are action-packed and will thrill young truck-lovers everywhere. It's a splendid introduction to a world that many children find riveting. Ages 2-7. Children's BOMC main selection. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-Large busy pictures and a simple declarative text introduce children to the process of building a road. The focus is on the vehicles involved, depicting them all together and then individually or in pairs as the project unfolds. Taback's cartoon illustrations show the multiethnic crew at work and a flatbed truck carrying them to the next job when the highway is completed. This book is a good choice for both beginning readers and preschool construction buffs. It is simpler than Gail Gibbons's New Road! (Crowell, 1983) and the drawings are larger and more detailed. Some of the same equipment is described in Ken Robbins's Power Machines (Holt, 1993), but that book doesn't show the building process. Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 2-6. With all kinds of trucks and heavy machines, a group of road builders work together to construct a highway. Instead of the usual catalog of vehicles, this bright picture book focuses on how each machine functions as part of the process of making a road. The workers, directed by their boss, follow a plan. First, the power shovel scoops and lifts the dirt. Then, cement mixers, bulldozers, front loaders, pavers, and all kinds of powerful machines carry out their tasks, until finally, the road is finished. Then come moving vans, taxicabs, delivery trucks, school buses . . . and flatbed trucks carrying the road builders to their new job. The multicultural cast includes a woman in a hard hat, who drives the backhoe, and a bearded man with a bandanna, who distributes the gravel for the roadbed. Kids will pore over the detailed, brightly colored pen-and-ink drawings. From the huge caterpillar treads on the bulldozer to the asphalt mix of "stones, stone dust, and gooey tar," words and pictures show the precision and the power of these marvelous machines. Hazel Rochman


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PreS-Gr 2-Large busy pictures and a simple declarative text introduce children to the process of building a road. The focus is on the vehicles involved, depicting them all together and then individually or in pairs as the project unfolds. Taback's cartoon illustrations show the multiethnic crew at work and a flatbed truck carrying them to the next job when the highway is completed. This book is a good choice for both beginning readers and preschool construction buffs. It is simpler than Gail Gibbons's New Road! (Crowell, 1983) and the drawings are larger and more detailed. Some of the same equipment is described in Ken Robbins's Power Machines (Holt, 1993), but that book doesn't show the building process.- Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ


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