Big Machines (Eyewitness Readers) - Softcover

"Smash! Crash! Scrape! Scrunch!... BIG machines do BIG jobs." Whether they're knocking down an old factory or building a new park with a pond, there's a big machine for every job. Cranes, bulldozers, excavators, and concrete mixers are put to the test, knocking down walls, scooping up rubble, and digging holes.

Eye-catching photographs and illustrations and simple, repetitive text in large type make the absorbing world of heavy machinery a perfect choice for the beginning reader. Dorling Kindersley's four-level learning-to-read series offers age-appropriate stories for all the early reader levels, preschool through grade 4. Children develop their reading skills while increasing their general knowledge. This Level 1 book includes picture dictionary boxes depicting such terms as "rubble," "wheel," and "chute," with a reference to the page number where the word first appears. (Ages 4 to 7) --Emilie Coulter

Kindergarten-Grade 2-This title presents photographs of some of the real trucks and tractors employed in constructing a city park, which is disappointingly shown only as a busy cartoon drawing at the end. Through sharp, full-color pictures, readers are introduced to a crane outfitted with wrecking ball, a bulldozer, a front loader, a dump truck, an excavator, and other heavy machinery used in tearing down old buildings and in laying the foundation for new construction. Smaller photographs highlight part of each vehicle-the tailgate on a tipper truck, the chute on the concrete mixer, and so on-although the inserts are a bit confusing since they show clean showroom trucks that are quite different from the dirty machines actually doing the work. Although billed at the easiest reading level ("Beginning to Read-Preschool to Grade 1"), this picture book definitely requires listening from its audience up through first grade. Still, the vivid photographs will certainly grab young engineers' attention.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
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