December 2007 Book Club Selection
Print/braille edition, $6.95
Ages 4-8
Every night, Alex's night-working father kisses him good night, then puts on his hard hat and goes out to work. One night Papa surprises his son with his very own hard hat and invites him along. The mysterious world they enter is very different from Alex's daytime life. The streets are populated with delivery people, street sweepers, and dog walkers. But most exciting of all is Papa's construction site, where the rattle and clang of heavy machinery means that a big building is going up. Alex watches as the bulldozers, cement mixers, and cranes do their jobs, and he even gets a chance to be a night worker himself for a brief, shining moment!
Seen through Alex's eyes, the construction site -- with its "midnight mountain" of soil and excavators that "groan like a giant rolling over in bed" -- is a truly wondrous, memorable event. But the heart of the story is Alex's pride and curiosity in his father's life, and his father's equal desire to share his world with his son. This is a lovely book for families to read together as a touch-off point for discussions about just what mom and dad do when they head off to work every day.
[A] sublime evening story . . . Banks' elegant, simple words and poetic images and rhythms evoke the book's exciting activity . . . A lovely, affecting portrait of a father and son and of the night world.
- Starred Review, Booklist
A mesmerizing description of a busy nighttime realm, illuminated by blazing headlights and framed by silent skyscrapers.
- Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
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