Digger, Dozer, Dumper

Vestergaard (Potty Animals) offers 16 poetic tributes to big machines and trucks that should prove deeply satisfying to young connoisseurs and the grownups who read to them. Rising above the usual singsong name-checking, Vestergaard celebrates not only the jobs these machines perform but also their marvelous mechanics (the garbage truck’s hydraulic arms; the levers of the agile skid-steer loader). And she consistently makes word choices that offer both catchy aural hooks and powerful, concise descriptiveness. On a street sweeper: “His steely whiskers whisper/ as they gather dust and dirt./ They tickle all the gutters,/ then rinse them with a squirt.” Slonim’s (The Deer Watch) pictures are rendered in bright acrylics (fire engine red and construction sign yellow prevail) and outlined in appropriately rugged charcoal; their burly cuddliness skews the pages toward younger imaginations. Each machine gets a humanlike expression on its grill (or, at the very least, a pair of googly eyes), and a crew of hardworking, hard-hatted kids and one eager, floppy-eared dog help get the jobs done. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Anna Webman, Curtis Brown. (Aug.)