Roadwork

June 16, 2008
Kids who love trucks and construction will find an ideal vehicle for their passions in this exuberant book from New Zealand, which uses full-bleed art and rhyming text to show how each of seven machines functions in the building of a road. Sutton's rhythms invite audience participation, as do the sound effects that end each verse: “Plan the road. Plan the road./ Mark it on the map./ Hammer in the marking pegs./ Ping! Bang!
Tap!
” Using ink, acrylics and colored pencils, Lovelock conjures artful landscapes with visible brushwork, reserving a speckling effect not unlike concrete for the road. These subtle embellishments in the background set off his clean, precise renderings of the construction trucks, which serve as de facto main characters. The last page supplies more information about the machines and how they work. Ages 2–5.