Driving My Tractor - Jan Dobbins

Illustrated by David Sims

2009, Barefoot Books

HC & paper (Carlisle's Bosler Library)

32 pages

for very young kids

Goodreads rating: 4.40

My rating: 5 (I have to say it's wonderful, Tristan loved it and enjoyed listening to it over and over and over again.

Title Page: Fully covered colored illustrations of the drier and his tractor, just like the rest of the book.

Illustrations:  Acrylics and Pastels.  Bright and lively and wonderful.

1^st line: "Driving my tractor down a bumpy road./ And in my trailer, there's a heavy load./ There's a black-and-white cow Going moo, moo, moo! It's a very busy day.? Chug, chug, Clank,clank, toot!/ It's a very busy day."

Last four pages include two pages of farm trucks and two pages of crops that are grown on a farm..  The final page is a song with the music.

A farmer goes down a bumpy road every day to pick up heavy loads: one cow, two donkeys, three pigs, four lambs, and five chickens...until he hits a really big bump and they all fall out (then beat him home).

My comments on Goodreads: Tristan loved this book, the repetitive, rhythmic words and the colorful illustrations (he just turned three and LOVES "krucks"). We got this from the library and it had no cd, I didn't even know there was a song until we turned the last page of the book and saw it. We'd actually sung the words all the way from the beginning without realizing, it's a very singable book. Highly recommended for little guys (and I mean both boys and girls) who love trucks and/or farms.

Katy and the Big Snow - Virginia Lee Burton

Houghton Mifflin, 1943/1971
Brand new paperback edition has sparkly cover and STICKERS!
$6.99 paper
40 pages
My rating: 5

Virginia Lee Burton's picture books - over sixty years old - are stiill being published! The Little House, Mike Mulligan, Katy - this is incredibly cool, huh? And after reading Katy and the Big Snow again (it's been an incredibly long time) I know why.

There's a wavy border on every page. There's a compass rose on any page that shows the city of Geopolis. There are maps. There's excitement. There's a hero (heroine!)....

When a blizzard covers the city of Geopolis, big, strong Katy the bulldozer-with-a-plough is called out to help (to the rescue!)

The illustrations are primarily in aqua with black, red, yellow, green. and white as the only other touches of color. They're "old fashioned" and incredibly wonderful.

Otis - Loren Long

Philomel/Penguin, 2009
$17.99
40 pgs.
for: preschoolers
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Otis coming (front) and going (back)

Otis is an old tractor who loves his farm and loves his life. One day the farmer brings a young calf into his barn, and they become fast friends. When the farmer buys a shiny new yellow tractor, Otis is relegated tot he puckerbrush behind the barn. His calf friend misses him, wandering the farm alone. When he gets stuck in the mud pond he sinks deeper and deeper with different attempts to unstick him until -- Otis the hero arrives.

This seems to be the kindo f book that would become a favorite. The illustrations are great - shades of brownish grays with red (Otis) and yellow (the new tractor), and bordered with a thick line. Even the font (15.5-point Engine) is just different enough to help the book become more of a standout. Such charisma and innocense on the faces of the two protagonists!

Is it anthropormorphic if a tractor behaves with human attributes? I'm going to sa so for listing purposes....

Here's a blog review from A Year of Reading.