BooksForKidsBlog

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Heavy Duty: Old MacDonald Had A Truck by Steve Goetz

Old MacDonald and the Mrs. are out in their big red farm truck. Are they headin' for the general store to load up on sacks of feed? After all, as we know Old MacDonald has got quite a lot of hungry, noisy livestock back on his place.

But no. They don't turn in at the general store or the Farmers Co-op. They head down the road to the heavy machinery show lot. And in no time the deal is done and...

OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM. E-I-E-I-O!

AND ON THIS FARM HE HAD AN

EXCAVATOR! E-I-E-I-0!

WITH A DIG, DIG HERE AND A DIG, DIG THERE,

HERE A DIG, THERE A DIG, EVERYWHERE A DIG, DIG.

E-I-E-I-0

Back at the farm the excavator starts clearing the sod for SOMETHING.

A very large plot of land has been prepared. Is Farmer MacDonald putting up a new barn? A silo?

Not yet. MacDonald and his partner are off in the truck again. Soon Old MacDonald's farm has a...

WITH A SCOOP, SCOOP HERE, A SCOOP, SCOOP THERE....

...Followed by a bulldozer, a motor grader, and a ...

DUMP TRUCK (DUMP! THUMP!)... A STEAM ROLLER (SQUISH, SMASH)
AND A CEMENT MIXER (SPIN, WHIRL)

And what's shapin' up at the construction site looks to be downright different--a fer piece from a barn or silo.

MacDonald is busy supervising the hired hands, and Mrs. MacDonald seems to be soupin' up the engine and putting some mighty big wheels and tires on that red truck of theirs.

E-I-E-I-0! It looks like the MacDonald's have themselves a race track for MONSTER TRUCKS... with grandstands and concession stands all ready for the crowd, in Steve Goetz's gearhead spinoff on Old MacDonald's Farm, Old MacDonald Had a Truck (Chronicle Books, 2016). Kids who love heavy construction equipment will find their favorites, along with onomatopoeic operations a-plenty to sing about, and artist Eda Kaban uses vivid pencil and gouache comic livestock and hired hands to lend a jolly note to the construction site as well. The endpapers even sport plenty of hand tools for mechanically minded munchkins to sort out, in an altogether power-packed rebuild of the old nursery song.

"Loads of infectious fun make this a read-aloud treat," says Kirkus' starred review.

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