The Day I Had a Bulldozer – a book from a new publisher, MAMABEAR Books

posted on October 10, 2023 by Eve Panzer

The Day I Had a Bulldozer
Written by Ashley Wall
Illustrated by Vaughan Duck
Published by Mamabear Books

When Luke looks out his window, lo and behold, a real, life-size bulldozer is in his front yard! When he drives his bulldozer to his friend’s houses, he discovers they all have their own construction vehicles. Together they work cooperatively to build a road to a popular kids’ destination – the new ice cream shop.

The author is an educator as well as a parent, and this is obvious in her book. There are springboards in the books for several topics. The characters are diverse – including a female who is also into construction. Of course, imagination is front and center. There are SEL elements also. When one of the children keeps crushing and crashing into things with his steamroller, his friends support and encourage him, telling him he will get better with practice. And the children all work together to build the new road.

The book can also be used to teach math and map skills lessons. Math is introduced when the kids realize the dump truck can hold 28,000 pounds. In addition to the humans, the adorable dog Bobo is featured on every spread. Another fun math element would be to count the number of times Bobo appears in the book. Towards the end of the book, there is a map, giving an excellent opportunity to teach children how to draw and read a map.

The book is kid-friendly in appearance. Throughout the book, some descriptive words, important nouns, and action verbs appear in large, fun fonts and are set at different angles for emphasis. Fun, colorful illustrations are reminiscent of cartoons and are engaging.

So many kids are fascinated by construction vehicles, and although there are many children’s books about them, pave the way to make room on the shelf for this one. This is a strong debut for the author and the new publishing house, Mamabear Books. At the end of the book, there is a hint that there will be another book in the series dealing with the popular topic of dinosaurs. Looking forward to other solid, quality children’s books from this new author and publisher!

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