Friday 21 March 2008

Big Farm Machines

Big Farm Machines, All Sorts of Trucks Pauline Cartwright, Reed, 2006, 24 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99 ISBN 1-86948-108-9; ISBN 1-86948-109-7

With Christmas approaching, books make ideal presents. At the moment there is a particularly fine range of New Zealand children’s picture books, for all ages.
Children who prefer non-fiction are not always well served but Pauline Cartwright’s Big Farm Machines and All About Trucks are welcome re-issues of large format colour photograph books which have proved a hit with kiwi kids, not all of them boys.

Tim Hawkins’ photos show inquisitive children at the Alexandra Blossom Festival’s truck parade learning all about B-trains, tractor units and bug deflectors. Fact boxes, captions and a lucid narrative provide plenty of information. Big Farm Machines has the same format but a wider range of equipment – from helicopters to sheep-dipping machinery. Again the large colour photos provide clear detail, often following processes, such as milking cows or hay baling, to show just how the machines work.

Trevor Agnew

This review appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 27 January 2007.

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