Review by Booklist Review
The creators of Karate Hour0 (2004) offer another energetic picture book with visual punch. Speaking in rhyming couplets, a young boy describes trips with his contractor dad to the site where a new school is being constructed. The use of rhyme feels too constraining, and some lines are clunkers: "The teachers have meetings. Dad's last workers rush. / Our waxed floors are gleaming. The toilets all flush." The pictures, though, have instant appeal. As in Karate,0 the spreads spill down the page vertically, rather than horizontally, for maximum impact. This time, however, Thomson uses full color, and his photo-realistic paintings bring viewers close up to, sometimes even under, giant machines that scoop dirt, dump gravel, and unload a river of cement seemingly right into the viewer's lap. Pair this with Kate Banks' The Night Worker 0 (2000) and the titles listed in the bibliography "The Art of Construction," in the December 15, 2000, issue of Booklist.0 --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The jaw-dropping, photo-realistic paintings make this book, from the team behind Karate Hour, as essential to any young construction fan as a toy tool-belt. The lucky boy narrator gets to tag along with his father, a member of the crew that's building the neighborhood's new school. Wearing his very own hardhat, the boy gets a treasured insider's view of the building's progress: "At noon, horns toot-toot! The crew needs to eat./ Dad lets me climb up in the earthmover's seat!" Throughout, Nevius's simple, incisive rhymes capture what's salient from a kid's point of view. On the eve of opening day, for instance, the narrator admires his reflection in the shiny new floors and notes, "The teachers have meetings. Dad's last workers rush./ Our waxed floors are gleaming. The toilets all flush." But it's Thomson's magnificent acrylics, rendered in a tight palette of blues (for denim and the summer sky), yellows and oranges, that give this book its standout status. The artist literally wants his audience to look at construction scenes from a new angle, setting his compositions on a vertical axis. Hence he places readers at the back of the unloading dump truck as the rocks tumble down, and at the end of the cement mixer's shoot, where the "gray glop" drops. This format, combined with Thomson's dramatically foreshortened framing and perspectives make for an experience that's both larger than life and deliciously dizzying. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In spare, rhyming text, a boy and his father, a builder, explore the site of the child's new school. Wearing hard hats, they watch throughout the year as the bulldozer clears the field and the cement mixer pours the foundation, etc., until the building is ready for the first day of classes. Bold acrylic and colored-pencil pictures give the oversize book great appeal-it opens from the bottom up, and the striking illustrations are done from the boy's perspective looking up at the huge machines. The boy concludes, "And when I'm a grown-up, I hope I will be/a builder like Dad with a helper like me!" The book will be enthusiastically welcomed by youngsters fascinated with construction and big machines. It is also an engaging father/son story.-Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A boy visits the construction site where his dad is helping build a new school. The rhyming text takes readers from breaking ground to the school's opening day. Although the book's vertical orientation may make it difficult to flip pages, the unique angles depicted in the strikingly realistic paintings present a fresh perspective that makes any awkwardness well worth the trouble. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Stunning, photo-realistic paintings entice the reader to pore over the vertical pages in this father-and-son construction venture. The paintings are so illuminative that the rhythmic text seems somewhat redundant. Over several months, son, Dad and the other builders work their way through the assemblage of what is revealed to be a new elementary school. It begins as the youngster rides astride his father's shoulders, the winter sun gleaming coolly on the snow dusting the earth. "Let's go for a ride," says father. "We'll check the construction to make sure it's right." Breaking ground, bulldozers descend, seemingly from a dizzying height. Trenches are dug, Dad's giant grader smoothes, cement is poured and pipes are welded. While father works the site, his son observes, lending the occasional hand. At last the project is complete, the floors are waxed and it's the first day of school. The story is engrossing on many levels to young builders, and the inspiring perspectives and sheer beauty of the artwork will captivate children and adults alike. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
