Bulldozer Helps Out works its magic on ages 7 and younger

Every kid needs a good construction book just like every woman needs a black dress. If you’ve got a child who is between two and six you know that they loved big machines. Bulldozer Helps Out is the second book in the Bulldozer series by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann. Heavy equipment can’t really be described as anthropomorphic. However, in Bulldozer Helps Out we see a group of construction vehicles being as human as possible and in the end doing something that will appeal to every small human.

The first thing adults will notice about Bulldozer Helps Out is its heart and soul. The illustrations by Eric Rohmann make the book feel like something they’ve been friends with for a while. Digger, Scraper, Grader and the others have enough detail to let readers immediately know who they are and the big building work that they do. However, the characters are not presented in a babyish manner; rather, it’s more of a classic appeal to the machines.

A great example of this is Chuck and Friends, if your children have seen that television show. That show features anthropomorphic construction trucks, but has a very limited and younger age range due to the way the trucks are drawn.

In Bulldozer Helps Out it’s important to note that our title character is noticeably smaller than everyone else. All Bulldozer wants to do is help, but is just too small to help out on the current project. The rest of the vehicles send Bulldozer over to a patch of the construction site to clear some land. It’s while doing this that a litter of kittens is found.

The text by Candace Fleming is grade appropriate for readers through first grade. Our 7 year old can read most of the book with fluency and without help. There were only a couple bigger words that he didn’t know and needed assistance with. Bulldozer Helps Out also benefits by the colors that make young readers look at the entirety of both pages. It makes great use of the occasional white spaces and the solid black border that surrounds every two pages give the book a movie or comic book vibe that encourages kids to turn the page.