By Ole Konnecke
Translated by Melody Shaw
Gecko Press, 2025
32 pages
9798765667552
Ages 5-8
Fourteen microstories starring anthropomorphic animals introduce readers to various types of construction and farming vehicles. Amanda Crocodile, for example, is fed up with having to ride her bike to work along a bumpy dirt track. “Want to learn some swear words? Try biking to work with Amanda sometime! / One day, Amanda has had enough. She gets herself a bulldozer.” There’s also Roberta Elephant, who lets the children at the park use the bucket of her dumper like a slide. (“This is probably not strictly allowed. But why spoil everyone’s fun?”) And there’s Hedda Hen, who finds herself in a mowing competition with a neighbor, buying increasingly larger lawn mowers until “Hedda starts up her combine harvester, and that’s the end of that.” Accompanying each fictional situation are italicized tidbits of information about how the machinery works, or how it can be used. A clean design with color-tabbed pages labeling the machines, cheeky animals, and slightly subversive humor make this informative volume as appealing as it is informative. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center