The Construction Site Band by Jennifer Loakes and Kelly Canby

A wonderfully involving look at changes within our cities, encourages children to use their voices, hands and feet to make the noise associated with a city construction site. Each day shows a stage in the workings of a construction site. The day begins with the workers, trucks and cement mixer arriving at the site. Blinds and curtains in the houses nearby are still closed, people still asleep. No noise yet. The workers are ready, the cement mixer churns and rumbles, the people wake up, their curtains open. The jack hammer jumps, rat-a-tat-tat-tat bellows over the city.

The bulldozer bumps a working beat, whar-whar-but. Children will be at this moment stomping and bumping, stamping and rat-a-tat-tatting around the room. But now is the time for a break. A wind blows and the people in the flats nearby have a nap while it is quiet.

Then the wrecking ball starts its work. Crash it goes across the pages. A compactor packs down the broken material while the children conduct. The day winds down as the trucks go tiki, tiki, honk. Then it is time for a finale, as all the noises come together and cover the pages with words of the construction site. Crash, rumble, whistle, eee-oooo, bump, rat-a-tat-tat, while the children come home from school, the workers put down their tools and the families come out of the houses around the site. Together they applaud the end of the day when the noise stops, and it is time for a rest, because the work will start again tomorrow.

Wonderfully loud, colourful illustrations cover each page, showing in bright colours the sounds made on the site.

This is a great involving read as kids emulate the noises made by the workings on a construction site. Children will look at such sites with a different point of view, nothing the various noises made by the different machines and people.

Themes: Construction, Machines, STEM, Music.

Fran Knight