Under the Hood

Books on huge equipment and machinery, transportation vehicles, and fast cars are perennially popular. Whether they feature ships, planes, trucks, snowmobiles, or tractors, the colorful covers will entice young readers. These series cover the allure, use, and, sometimes, sport of the many vehicles. Because these are such popular topics, readers expect and deserve to have accurate, interesting, and informative material with appropriate vocabulary.

Gr 3-5– In these introductions, six four-page chapters include stories about the inventions or discoveries, biographies of the person(s) involved, simple science experiments related to the inventions, and short narratives about the current use of the items. Speech bubbles designed to convey the scientists’ comments flow from the painting of the featured person. Information in them is sometimes vague. Some of the textual statements suffer from the same affliction as a result of oversimplification, while some facts are incorrect. Construction, for example, discusses flat shapes, which are not defined, and it is not clear as to how “Towers are drilled into rock or concrete blocks” when building a suspension bridge. Space leads readers to believe that Russian scientist Sergei Korolev launched Sputnik I by himself. Also, the random arrangement of topics can be confusing. After an abrupt ending, a bubble-type time line, which includes information that is not in the texts, concludes each volume. A disappointing series.

Gr 1-2–Brightly colored photos of large machines cannot salvage this poorly researched series. Chapter spreads with a large-font introductory paragraph and a full-spread photo of the featured machine are accompanied by a smaller inset photo. Additional information, some of which is so simplified it is misleading, appears in smaller font paragraphs and captions. Some machines mentioned are not shown. A majority of the stock photos have had all traces of brand names removed (this is especially annoying in Aircraft). There are many errors. For example, Tractors gives the impression that the name of a tractor can be changed simply by attaching a different implement; a combine is not a tractor that combines two tasks even if the tractor is pulling the combine. In Diggers, a front-end loader is passed off as a bulldozer in one chapter and in another as a road grader. Each title concludes with a photo summary and facts not included in the text. This series does not deserve consideration.

Gr 3-4– Colorful, close-up photos of the featured machine or structure will draw readers to this attractive series. Titles include nine chapter spreads, each of which has a full-page photo that slightly spills over onto the opposite page, where one or two paragraphs are printed over a fluffy white cloud with a blue sky background. A smaller photo usually appears near the text. Each chapter covers one machine, describing how it is used and providing statistics such as length, height, width, weight, wingspan (Airplanes), and speed (Roller Coaster). Informative captions appear in boxes designed to look like metal plates attached with screws. The texts end abruptly, but are followed by a “More…” page with four or five small photos and captions of additional similar equipment, giving the impression that there was too much material for the allotted space. Earthmovers and Trucks suffer from simplistic vocabulary at times. Earthmovers, for example, vaguely explains hydraulic as “liquid flowing through the machine,” and Trucks refers to ropes or cables as strong cords. Airplanes and Roller Coasters have fewer problems and are acceptable purchases.

K-Gr 2–This series is billed as being for “fluent readers.” Each title presents four examples of the featured tool. The four-page chapters have two pages of introductory material and large color photos that usually label various parts of the tool. Boxed captions describe some of the smaller illustrations. The last two pages of the chapter show a person working with the item (whose brand name has been removed). An attempt has been made to personalize these photos by naming the worker. Drills, Hammers, and Screwdrivers are fine purchases, though they would be more suitable for one-on-one reading than for independent reading. In the other books, safety features are not consistently shown–in Saws, for example, a man using a handsaw on a 2x8 is holding the board against his thigh. Drills, Hammers, and Screwdrivers exhibit other small problems in their photographs. The texts end abruptly and are followed by four-question matching tests and four-question true-false quizzes.

Gr 4-6–Filled with a multitude of colorful photos and a few vintage black-and-white ones, these books’ appearance borders on busy, but the content more than compensates for that. Providing several subtopics within six or seven chapters, each title presents history, famous figures, and other information in an intelligent, factual manner. Parts of the texts are in paragraph format, and the rest comes in the form of boxed captions. Safety is stressed when racing is involved. There are some minor content problems. Custom Cars, which has excellent commentary about the dangers of street racing, includes a photo of a 2007 Camaro. This would have been a concept car, as 2003 was the last model year for the Camaro until 2009 when Chevy released the 2010 model. Trucks states that Ford released its Model T Runabout in 1925. This is correct, but readers will likely assume that this was the first pickup truck, whereas the book later states that Chevrolet released its first pickup in 1918. Even with the aforementioned errors, this series is the best to come along in some time.

Gr 3-4–This series suffers from simplicity, misconceptions, and errors. Chapter spreads include a bold-face paragraph introducing the machine and are loaded with brightly colored stock photos–some are action shots–that depict a variety of the machines in each category. Additional data is presented as captions to smaller photos. Each chapter has an “Incredible Fact” box. The titles have a variety of problems. The “Stats & Facts” sidebars are not always consistent in content from one chapter to the next. Race Track, for example, lists most engine sizes in liters or ccs, but the dragster is listed in gallons. The stylized font of some captions is hard to read. These books do not warrant purchasing.

Gr 2-3–These titles suffer from a lack of imagination, real material, and a limited vocabulary. The first chapter of each title is almost identical, with terms specific to the topic substituted where needed. The chapters feature brief information in an easy-to-read font accompanied by a large color photo or two smaller ones on two-thirds of the spread. Actual participants in the sport are shown and named, and safety is stressed. Vocabulary is simplistic; e.g., the frame of the ATV is described as holding its parts together. A similar statement appears in most of the other titles. Dune Buggies states three times that some buggies are driven on the street. The authors assume that readers have never heard of gasoline. Various parts of each vehicle are labeled, and defined with limited success, and captions are sometimes redundant.

In general, these series on tools and large machines are disappointments. The current trend to “dumb down” text under the guise of controlling the vocabulary for beginning readers is an insult to children in search of legitimate information, and leads to overly simplistic texts that are bound to cause misconceptions. Most of the authors here assume that readers are not familiar with any of the items being described. Only one series and two titles from another have escaped these mechanical breakdowns. “Velocity: RPM” (Capstone) is a nice choice for an older audience, and is by far the best series in the group. For younger readers, Planes and Roller Coasters from the “World’s Biggest” series (Bearport) are acceptable.