64. Demolition by Sally Sutton and illustrated by Brian Lovelock

Demolition by Sally Sutton and illustrated by Brian Lovelock
Published March 2012 Walker Books

From the publisher:

Swing the ball. Swing the ball. Thump and smash and whack. Bring the top floors tumbling down. Bang! Clang! Crack! Load the trucks. Load the trucks. Lift and shift and heap. Drive away the piles of junk. Whump! Whop! Beep! Busy workers and noisy machines demolish an old building and build a new playground.

I find that there are very few picture books just for boys. Lots for girls, lots of general interest, but not many that are real 'boys' books. I was a big fan of Roadworks (also by Sally Sutton), so I was excited to see Demolition hit the shelves.

From the title, to the gray rubble of the endpapers, this book will appeal to all who love excavators, bulldozers, trucks and wrecking balls. The text rhymes and is filled with wonderful onomatopoeic sound effects like SCRUNCH, THWOCK, SPLISH and CRASH.

The illustrations clearly show all of the stages of the demolition, from the wrecking ball knocking down the building, the excavator taking the building apart, the crusher making new concrete from old to the new playground being built on the cleared ground. For the machine obsessed there is also a fact page at the back of the book giving information on each of the machines used throughout the book.

Who will like this book: Boys age 4+
Read it if you like: Roadworks by Sally Sutton