School Library Journal Starred Review

PreS-Gr 2 Sutton follows up Roadwork (Candlewick, 2008) with a sure-to-please title for construction-loving fans. Demolition depicts all the equipment and action necessary for knocking down an old building, "Whirr! Churr! Crunch!" to clear the way for the construction of a playground. At every phase of the destruction, mention is made of the recycling and repurposing of materials. The text is rife with onomatopoeic phrases and action verbs, making it great for reading aloud and building vocabulary. Lovelock's pigmented ink illustrations capture details about the machines—from treads to gears—in a style that is graphic and yet painterly. The geometric nature of the construction equipment offers another avenue for engaging children with the book. A picture glossary with simple facts about the function of each machine is appended. Pair this book with Jon Scieszka's Smash! Crash! (S &; S, 2008), Eve Merriam's Bam Bam Bam (1995), and Denise Fleming's Alphabet Under Construction (2002, both Holt) for an animated storytime.— Amy Commers, South St. Paul Public Library, MN

ALA Booklist

This gallery of burly building-smashers from the creators of Roadwork (2008) pairs big paintings of bulldozers, wrecking balls, and other heavy machinery taking down what looks like an old parking garage to the accompaniment of a pounding commentary in display-size type. "Work the jaws. Work the jaws. / Bite and tear and slash. / Dinosaurs had teeth like this! / RIP! ROAR! / CRASH!" Lovelock depicts his heavy-duty subjects from a variety of side and elevated views and spatters the full-spread scenes to enhance that gritty, construction-scene feel. Joined by busy hard-hat crews of both men and women, the machines proceed to grind up all of the concrete and wood debris for recycling, hauling some of it away but leaving behind a flat surface, over which other crews build a grassy playground. Another visually and verbally emphatic delight for younger readers who are stuck on trucks.

Horn Book

A demolition crew tears down an old building, sorts scraps of material, and hauls the debris off to make room for a new construction project, revealed at the end to be a playground. The rhyming text, full of onomatopoeia and muscular action words, captures the excitement and energy of big trucks hard at work. Meticulous illustrations give the job site a suitably dusty patina.

Kirkus Reviews

Ode to a wrecking ball! And other heavy construction equipment. "Grab your gear. Grab your gear," begins the book, which offers 11 four-line verses in bold lettering, each in a two-page spread highlighting a different aspect of the demolition process. Workers get into their protective gear as the wrecking ball is moved into place: "Buckle, tie, and strap. / Safety jackets, boots and hats. / Zip! Stamp! SNAP!" The jaws of the excavator "Rip! Roar! CRASH!" And its basket works to "Ram the walls. Ram the walls." The mobile crusher grinds up broken concrete, and the industrial wood chipper shreds the wood: "Split and chop and chip." One verse is dedicated to loading the truck with debris, another to building playground equipment on the excavation site. The final lines--"Join the fun. Join the fun... / Hip...hip... HOORAY!"--depict happy people using the park that has been designed and built on the demolition site. A final illustrated page offers some concise "Machine Facts" on both the vehicles and some of their components. The onomatopoeia in Sutton's simple rhyming text is appealingly extreme, and it's like a natural for listener repetition, though the verses could be more distinct from one another. Lovelock's bright pictures--in ink, acrylic and colored pencil--are a solid match. Smashing good fun for preschoolers of both genders. (Picture book. 3-5)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this follow-up to their 2008 Roadwork, Sutton and Lovelock savor the joys of creative destruction-in the most literal sense of the phrase-as a derelict building is torn down to make way for a playground. Once again, Sutton-s rhyming text has an imperative, chanting quality that-s a perfect fit with the subject matter: -Swing the ball. Swing the ball./ Thump and smash and whack./ Bring the top floors tumbling down./ Bang! CLANG! CRACK!- Lovelock sticks to largely schematic characterizations of his human crew so that he can focus on the machines themselves; an excavator chomps into a building (-Dinosaurs had teeth like this!-) while a crusher makes -new concrete from the old.- The bright red and yellow vehicles (which are also recapped in a glossary) pop out from the dappled and speckled blue-hued settings, and Lovelock-s crisp ink line delineates rivets, hydraulics, and heft. It-s clear that for all the pointing and switching and even driving that humans do, the real magic is in the ruthless efficiency with which these engineering marvels collide and gnaw into a hapless structure. Ages 3-5. (Feb.)