Roadwork!

"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. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Every preschooler who is mad for machines is sure to revel in this bright, boisterous picture book about the exciting process of building a road. Full color.

Sally Sutton is a playwright and author of two previous picture books. She lives in New Zealand.

Brian Lovelock is a geophysicist as well as a fine artist. ROADWORK is his first picture book. He lives in New Zealand.