What Can You Do with a Toolbox?

Carrino and Colaneri, HGTV personalities known as the Cousins, bring their design and construction know-how to a young audience in this sprightly introduction to the tools of their trade. In energetic watercolor pictures, Lam (My Little Sister and Me) shows the authors sharing the contents of a toolbox with a half-dozen curious kids and one frisky puppy. Emphasizing that “safety always come first,” the cousins provide safety glasses, hard hats, work gloves, and boots before demonstrating what each tool can do. Their functions are explained, simply and clearly, as the adults, aided by the children, assemble objects high in kid appeal: a wrench turns bolts on a swing set, a shovel fills a sandbox, a tape measure determines the height of a slide, a level ensures that monkey bars are straight, and paintbrushes (in little hands) make colorful designs on walls. The antics of the dog, a cheerful yellow bird fond of riding on hard hats, and a mischievous squirrel supply additional visual diversion before the completed construction project—a bustling playground filled with happy kids—appears in a jubilant final spread. Ages 4–8. [em](Aug.) [/em]