Bedtime for Little Bulldozer

April 1, 2019

PreS-Imagine How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? with a bulldozer instead of dinosaurs and you've got the gist of this book. Ah, but what a fun and funny ride it is! Little Bulldozer's father not only helps him brush his teeth, an endeavor that involves a push broom toothbrush, but also checks his fluid levels. His mother reads him a story and helps him with his bath. But when Little Bulldozer is all tucked into bed under his tool patterned blanket, he isn't sleepy at all. First he accidentally flips over the bed while checking underneath it. Crash! Then while reading his favorite story (with headlights instead of a flashlight) to his stuffed animals, he gets excited (it was a really good story) and honks his horn a few times, loudly. His parents repeatedly admonish him to go to sleep, offering him a cup of oil to quench his thirst. But it's all to no avail as Little B next attempts to see what his parents are doing and falls down the stairs in a cartoonlike fashion: "They weren't as happy to see him as he'd hoped." Back in bed again, a tired but lonely Little B scoops up his stuffed animals, trundles down the hall to his sisters' room, and finally falls asleep in a cozy nest on the floor. Jackson's hilarious illustrations are a perfect complement to Broach's text. Various visual points of view and dynamic text placement move the narrative along. VERDICT A traditional not-ready-for bedtime story with heavy machinery, which takes it to another level. A solid purchase for most libraries.-Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2018
You can lead a bulldozer to bed, but you can't make him sleep.Seemingly acquiescent, Little Bulldozer is ready to be put down for the night by his human mom and dad. But even after a bath and tooth-brushing, sleep eludes him. In a series of actions that will be familiar to caregivers everywhere, Little Bulldozer thumps around his room, reads a book (The Little Engine that Could) too loudly to himself, and even attempts a failed stealth mission down the stairs to see what his parents are up to. Only when he slips into his older sisters' room (a steamroller and excavator, respectively) does sleep finally overtake the restless little machine. With its tiny human parents/enormous inhuman children dynamic, the book owes more than a passing nod to Jane Yolen and Mark Teague's How Do Dinosaurs series. But if Broach's tale is by no means original it nevertheless remains soothing in its familiarity. Done in pencil and Adobe Photoshop art, the accompanying illustrations are sweetly humorous. They even contain the occasional oddball detail, such as background family portraits showing ancestors with old-timey car heads. Jackson's art also plays up the inherent ridiculous logistics of an inside bulldozer's life, such as how he would act on a spring mattress or how caterpillar treads might tiptoe. Little Bulldozer's parents have brown skin and black hair.While construction-equipment bedtime books have become a genre in and of themselves, there's still room for one more good-hearted tale of antsy, agitated equipment. (Picture book. 3-6)

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