Mighty Construction Sherri Duskey Rinker Reviews Summary

Illustrations and Design

Pros:

• "Pictures are fun and VERY well done, love the sturdy hard cover."
• "Nice bright clear illustrations, friendly smiles & eyes on Vehicles, Encouraged team work."
• "Very beautiful illustrations."
• "The illustrations are wonderful."
• "Lovely art and a fun story told in great rhythm."
• "Your little one will love the detailed illustrations, the cute expressions on the machines, and the catchy rhymes."
• "Lichtenheld's artwork is just as intriguing and instructive."

Cons:

• "The book jacket was sliced through, probably by an over-zealous box cutter, so I had to have it replaced."
• "The book jacket was sliced through, probably by an over-zealous box cutter."
• "Darling story and pictures but first time I read it to my two year old grandson, the pages started falling out - and I was turning the pages!"
• "The binding has completely fallen apart a year later."
• "The reason I gave it two stars is that we haven’t even had it a week and the binding is coming apart."

Story and Writing

Pros:

• "Great follow up to 'Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site'."
• "It combines a love of construction vehicles with the value of teamwork and the importance of each one’s talent."
• "The story is adorable, rhyming words are brilliant, illustrations are well done, and the message of cooperation and team-work is priceless!"
• "The story is clear, simple, and perfect. Some jobs are too much to do on your own, and it's OK to ask for help."
• "The story is super cute about the familiar goodnight construction site trucks getting a new job that was too big so they needed reinforcements."
• "Goodnight Construction Site was my son's favorite book! This one carries the same cadence of the original, but introduces themes of team work and sharing."
• "This book has a nice plot -- the original five trucks from Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site need to call some friends to help them finish a big job."

Cons:

• "It is really cute but not as good in my mind as the other two books."
• "There is quite a lot of repetition between the two books, which is a bit annoying when you're reading them frequently."
• "It's a little too technical about what the various pieces of construction equipment do versus having some kind of overarching story that can pull a young reader in."
• "The rhymes are more awkward and the author seems to be working too hard to construct a moral message."
• "Not sure who the target audience is - conceptually it seems geared toward a younger child; based on the text, it seems a better fit for an older child."
• "Super inaccurate construction equipment.....Faces? Backwards buckets? Come on, be real."
• "It's a good message but feels pedantic and preachy the way it's hammered in."

Educational Value

Pros:

• "I love that there are words such as 'intense' and 'immense' and 'nimble' to help broaden children's vocabulary."
• "Having a cute story explain these items help him explain his job to our children."
• "We LOVE learning all the names of the construction vehicles!"
• "But the illustrations are beautiful and, because it is somewhat technical, it is also educational."
• "Great explanations for what all the trucks do!"
• "We love learning about all the construction vehicles with a great word flow."
• "Our child has learned the names of his favorites construction toys, and he knows more about what they actually do in the building process."

Cons:

• "The sounds are a bit annoying and repetitive."
• "He was more interested in the pictures instead of the storyline."
• "However, there are so many words he doesn't know."

Gender Representation

Pros:

• "For those of you concerned about gender representation, there are two 'female' trucks in the story and roughly eight 'male' trucks."
• "I like that a couple of the trucks are girls!"
• "This one also has female construction vehicles in it, my kids picked that up right away and loved it!"
• "I also love that it has incorporated some female trucks :-)"
• "I'm SO HAPPY that the author addressed this in this book! So fab!! And even better, the female trucks aren't visualized as a female stereotype."
• "I was happily surprised that some of the new trucks are female trucks."
• "It's one of the few construction-themed books that includes tough and competent female characters!"

Cons:

• "They added some females, but still in supportive, weak roles."