By Scot Ritchie
Kids Can Press, $16.95, 32 pages
Building seems to be an innate fascination with some children. It might be blocks, Legos, tinkertoys, or K’nex. Some children cannot resist the lure of a pile of miscellaneous pieces. At the same time, it is the natural instinct of many parents to want to encourage and extend their child’s interests. For the parent of such a young builder, Look at That Building! may prove a perfect choice. In this book, Scot Ritchie follows a group a five young builders as they make plans to build a dog house. Along the way, Ritchie touches lightly on many interesting aspects of building: the wide variety of places we build; the basic parts of a structure including the foundation, floor, walls, beams, doors, windows, columns and roofs; building done in nature; the framing of skyscrapers; and basic structural shapes such as the dome. He concludes with the instructions to build a simple model of a dog house.
If you know an avid little builder, Look at That Building! could be just the book to help that child see the world around him or her in a whole new way.
Reviewed by Annie Peters
[amazon asin=1554536960&text=Buy On Amazon&template=carousel]