hard hat area: construction-themed picture books

We've been experimenting with different driving routes to school in the hopes of striking a balance between most direct and quickest, which are not necessarily the same, depending on the time of day (rush hour, when my beloved is taking the lad to school, and mid-afternoon when the younger lad, lasses, and I are going to pick him up). 

One route is lined with orange construction barrels almost the entire way, with lanes narrowed and lowered speed limits.  This sounds like a nightmare to me in morning rush hour traffic, but to our five-year-old kindergartner, it's a dream come true.  The mid-afternoon drive through this little boy wonderland isn't quite as bad for the chauffeur, especially when punctuated by such wide-eyed, delightful exclamations as "that's my excavator!" and "that crane is lifting a pick-up truck!"

In honor of the construction that surrounds us and my lads who love it, here are some of the construction-themed picture books that we've dug (in no particular order):

• Roadwork by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock 
• The Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Rob Bolster 
• The Lot at the End of My Block by Kevin Lewis, illustrated by Reg Cartwright 
• Building with Dad by Carol Nevius, illustrated by Bill Thomson 
• Dig by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal 
• Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrated by Junji Koyose 
• C is for Construction: Big Trucks and Diggers from A to Z by Caterpillar 
• Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by James E. Ransome