The Busy Building Book [Hardcover]

Sue Tarsky (Author), Alex Ayliffe (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 1998 | Age Level: 3 and up

Bbrrr! Slam! Kar-oom! What's all that noise? It's a building going up! Ready to excavate? Then come join the crews of workers as they construct a new office building from bottom to top. Brightly colored, profusely labeled cut-paper pictures introduce readers to the various parts of each fascinating machine, while the playful text explains all the action! The many stages of this big and important job will delight every child who has ever been mesmerized by a bulldozer, dump truck, excavator, cement mixer or crawler crane.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

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 Booklist

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

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (March 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399231374
• ISBN-13: 978-0399231377
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,337,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Very Nice Introduction to the Construction Process, August 15, 2009

By 

Shanna A. Gonzalez "eyelevelbooks.com" (Gaithersburg, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Busy Building Book (Paperback)

A very nice portrayal of the construction process. Construction workers with their equipment, vehicles, and building materials are depicted in collage-style art, with important elements of the construction scene clearly labeled. The reader follows the building from the pouring of its foundation through the opening speech as workers wait to enter.

The Busy Building Book book provides a look into the fascinating process of construction, and provides the names for tools, building materials, and other objects within a context where they are actually used. The only thing I would change would be to make the illustrations more realistic and detailed, but for younger children it is a great choice. Those who wish to pursue a more detailed study of construction might enjoy David Macaulay's Unbuilding (Sandpiper) when they are older.