cover image Whose Tools?

Whose Tools?

Toni Buzzeo, illus. by Jim Datz. Abrams Appleseed, $9.95 (16p) ISBN 978-1-4197-1431-3

This delightful guessing game%E2%80%93style board book introduces 24 tools and the tradespeople who use them. %E2%80%9CTo build a house, start down low./ Whose tools are these? Do you know?%E2%80%9D begins Buzzeo as googly-eyed, boot-wearing versions of a chalk line, jointer, chisel, and float smile at readers on a foldout page. Opening it reveals a mustachioed mason, who explains, %E2%80%9CI smooth the cement until it%E2%80%99s flat.%E2%80%9D Women are well represented among Datz%E2%80%99s carpenters, roofers, electricians, plumbers, and painters (who are drawn in a range of skin tones), providing a subtle %E2%80%9Cyou could do this, too%E2%80%9D message that is cemented in a closing scene of two children playing with blocks in the finished house. Ages 2%E2%80%934. Author%E2%80%99s agent: Stefanie Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. (May)