The Great Big Book of Mighty Machines

A vehicle-lover's dream come true, this meaty volume focuses on cars, bikes, trains, tractors, rescue vehicles, construction trucks and monster trucks. Each section (which is divided into subtopics, one per double-page spread) ends with an activity page encouraging readers to identify photos, answer comprehension-type questions and complete create challenges such as drawing an original vehicle and writing a story about it or making a collage. While a few terms might be new to American readers (train "wagons" instead of "cars" and "MPV" instead of "van"), for the most part the text is easy to read and understand. Brightly colored page edges draw eyes inward to the exciting full-color photos that fill the pages, many of them showing the featured vehicles in motion (and offering the occasional adult-pleasing tidbit, as with a potato harvester brand-named "Spudnik"). Both glossary and index are extensive, the youngest grease monkeys will feel completely fulfilled by the heft and breadth of this tome.-- (12/01/2009)
This picture-book-size, photo-packed volume offers a visual feast for young gearheads.... The images that are the main attraction here, and interested kids will be entranced by the multiple color photos of machines at work on each page. A list of suggested activities closes each section and invites interactive fun, but this title will find its largest audience among young browsers, including preschoolers, who will simply want to flip through the pages again and again and lose themselves in this gallery of mechanical marvels.-- (12/01/2009)