Goodnight Construction Sherri Duskey Rinker Reviews Summary

Illustrations and Story Quality

Pros:

• "The illustrations are amazing, and it's a fun book to read."
• "The illustrations are very nice too."
• "The illustrations are so unique and vibrant."
• "The pictures are great - each vehicle is, believe it or not, 'cute' - and my son loves to learn each one's name."
• "The illustrations are wonderful & the bedtime story flows well."
• "This book is beautifully illustrated; each truck is drawn in detail and given faces and personalities that little ones can appreciate."
• "The illustrations are so cute and the text is so well written."

Cons:

• "I would have preferred brighter color tones for the illustrations."
• "Cute story if your toddler is obsessed with construction vehicles. But dude, maybe I'm just an older geriatric parent, but my 40+ eyes can't read the tiny wording in a dark room at night."
• "The one thing that could be better is the placement of the text. We're trying to teach our son to read by following the text with our finger, but doing so inevitably covers the drawings and my son asks us to stop."

Educational Value

Pros:

• "It’s a great book to teach the little kids all about construction and it allows them to have a better understanding of the construction field."
• "Several types of construction equipment are described as they work, then each is described as it shuts down for a good night's rest."
• "It's accurate in identifying truck and equipment parts which I did not expect in a toddler book."
• "With all the emphasis on STEM programs, this book would be a great reintroduction to basic machines and how they work."
• "Good for teaching young children about the different kinds of construction trucks."
• "This is a great book for teaching about construction vehicles. My school is currently under construction, so I bought it to read to my kindergartners."
• "I also like how it teaches you the names of several different trucks - cement mixer, crane truck, excavator, etc. - and what they actually do."

Cons:

• "This product is ridiculous. I bought this book to teach my young child that construction sites are dangerous and that, at night, they are even worse."
• "However, when I read the book, they don't seem to be paying much attention to the words, and instead make up their own stories about the characters."

Book Quality and Durability

Pros:

• "Good quality for the hardback edition."
• "The thick cardboard pages are pretty durable."
• "The book is smaller in size, but thick cardboard pages and very sturdy."
• "The book itself is thick and well made."
• "Always love the toddler-proof board book option!"
• "The board book itself has thick, sturdy pages."
• "The pages are sturdy and the perfect size for tiny hands."

Cons:

• "I ordered it for a gift and was disappointed that it arrived with a tear on the the front over page."
• "I'm really disappointed in the condition this book arrived in- I order a lot of children's books from Amazon and this is the most banged up I've received one."
• "I am returning this and ordering another one. Will try again! I paid for a new book, and the first page in this one has a dedication that someone wrote."
• "I received this book and it was warped -- didn't open flat and wouldn't be easy for a young child to hold and turn the pages."
• "The thick cardboard pages are pretty durable, but he plays with it constantly and bends it up to the point they end up coming apart."
• "However, the binding and the pages do not hold up in the hands of a two year old."
• "Only thing I would caution is that while it's a 'hardcover' book, the pages, which feel a bit thicker than your average paper, could be torn quite easily by a toddler."

Gender Representation

Pros:

• "I find nothing wrong with using the pronoun 'he' for the vehicles, as some reviewers found fault with."
• "Any parent who wants to include other genders can certainly add that many men work at construction sites, but that women work there also."

Cons:

• "The only thing that was annoying is ALL the vehicles are male."
• "I have serious concerns about the sexism in this book."
• "Another quibble that I share with several other reviewers is that all of the construction trucks are boys."
• "However upon our first read, I was dismayed to find that every truck is a HE. Why no female trucks?"
• "The disappointment comes from encountering only male pronouns - something that could have easily, easily, easily been modernized without losing the rhythmic nature of the story."
• "After like 3 months of reading it, it struck me that all the construction trucks are 'he/him', for no real reason."
• "The ONLY downside, as another reviewer has noted, is that all of the characters in this book are male."