The Busy Building Book - Hardcover

Tarsky, Sue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399231374 ISBN 13: 9780399231377

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, 1998

Synopsis

Bold, labeled illustrations and a simple narration throughout describe and explain the various stages, equipment, tools, and people involved in constructing a building from the foundation upward.

About this title

About the Author

Sue Tarsky is the author of many books for children. She lives in London, England.
Alex Ayliffe lives in England.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 3?Young engineers will be hooked by this basic introduction to what happens at a construction site. Opening with an empty city lot, the book shows the many steps involved in erecting a new building. Technical vocabulary (excavate, foundation, scaffolding) is explained in terms that children can comprehend. The text on each page is brief yet informative, letting the artwork guide readers' understanding and imagination. The illustrations are filled with heavy equipment and workers in hardhats. Each double-page spread clearly identifies the machinery and materials needed for such a large undertaking. The spreads are full but the layout and design never appear crowded. The colorful collage-type art shows the construction from a variety of well-chosen angles and includes a multitude of details that young children will pore over again and again. A terrific collaborative effort on the part of the author and illustrator.?Maura Bresnahan, Topsfield Town Library, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the opening page, readers are launched into a description of a construction site: ``Before construction can start, the site is boarded off to keep pedestrians out.'' Every double-page spread presents a short text and the steady progress at the site of a future office building, with labels and pointers for about 20 items in the scene (e.g., ``site hoarding sheets,'' ``safety officer,'' and ``dump truck''). There are pages on excavation, building a foundation, and putting up scaffolding, down to a scene of wallpaper hangers and moving men. Toddlers will pore over the trucks, machinery, and building, even if the stylized art--bright blocks of color resembling cut-paper collage--leaves out the details they crave most. Every hardhat is almost identical; there is no detail in the caterpillar tires, pistons, or vents. Ayliffe concentrates on soaring perspectives and congenial, cluttered settings; the imaginative use of colors and shapes keeps all the girders, building materials, and scenes distinct. (Picture book. 2-6) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 2^-7. From the endpapers with their neatly labeled construction vehicles to the closing double-spread picture, this is clearly a book that will provide hours of rapt concentration and finger-pointing. The process of a skyscraper going up in a big city is explained--from the site's being boarded off, the excavation, and the erection of the building's skeleton, to the dizzying work atop the steel girders, the laying of carpet, and the speech on opening day. Each of the large, bright paper-collage pictures contains a number of interesting labeled items, with an object often identified more than once on the page in an effort to help children recognize it from different perspectives. In addition, every page is peopled with construction workers, all hard at work. Any library with a large preschool population will want more than one copy of this appealing book. Susan Dove Lempke

Edition details

• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399231374
• ISBN 13: 9780399231377
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Ayliffe Alex
• Number of pages: 32