Powell presents some of the most popular construction vehicles with spectacular graphic simplicity.
Each page is embossed with textural and glossy elements and depicts a single truck and its driver’s silhouette in action. While digitally created, Powell’s renderings of a dump truck, a steamroller, a crane, a digger and a cement mixer have the grainy look of woodcut prints, with a pleasing mix of strong and muted colors against a cream background. The bold red text, featuring playful truck noises (“Brrrm, brrrm” and “Whirr, whirr”), frames the construction activity and gives each piece of heavy machinery added energy. While most modern steamrollers are diesel-powered and don’t make a “Puff, puff” noise, this is only a minor flaw. On the final page, readers discover the project that ties these five trucks together: a new house, complete with sparkly foil windows, for the unseen narrator.
While other titles in the prolific construction-book genre have more detail and more text, this one is just enough for the very youngest truck enthusiasts. (Board book. 1-3)
