The Big Concrete Lorry

School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2 –The Patterson family is too cramped in their city row house and decides to add an extension. Families who have lived through household construction projects will identify with the children’s anticipation and their excitement over the big trucks that deliver building materials. Dad and the neighbors dig the foundation, but the early delivery of a pile of wet cement dumped unceremoniously by the front door sends all scurrying to work before it hardens. With her ink and colorful wash illustrations, Hughes concentrates readers ‘ attention on the interior scenes, the multiracial neighborhood, and the help people give one another, rather than on the actual details of construction. Adults will marvel at the economy of language–the extension is completed in one sentence–but children will envy the young Pattersons’ new room and the leftover pile of hardened concrete, just fine for downhill car races and for standing on to see to the end of Trotter Street. As usual, Hughes makes city life warm and friendly while recounting from a child’s point of view another memorable experience. The text is unchanged from the British edition; a note up front explains some expressions, but all are understandable in context. –Susan Hepler, Alexandria City Public Schools, VA