What Can a Crane Pick Up? - Hardcover

REBECCA KAI DOTLICH is a poet and picture book author whose work has been featured in numerous magazines, anthologies, and textbooks. Her books have received a number of awards including the Golden Kite Honor and a Bank Street Children's Book of the Year. She has two grown children and four grandchildren and lives in Indiana with her husband.  

MIKE LOWERY's work has been seen in galleries and publications internationally, and he is Professor of Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. He is the illustrator of The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (written by Laura Murray), Ribbit Rabbit (by Candace Ryan) and Dr. Proctor's Fart Powder (by Jo Nesbo). Mike lives in Atlanta with a lovely German frau named Katrin and his super-genius daughter, Allister.

PreS-K-Smiling, anthropomorphic machines romp through the pages of this rhyming text, showing the many things a crane can pick up, from trucks to cars and trains to planes, from sunken ships and mummy cases to a space shuttle. Sometimes they lift up a polar bear or cartons and cartons of underwear. Cranes can even pick up other cranes. Lowery's pencil, silk screen, and digital-media art makes excellent use of flat, retro colors-blue, green, brown, gold, yellow, and gray-and seamlessly integrates the type into the design. The humorous text is just the ticket for toddler storytimes, although some of the rhymes seem a bit forced. The imaginative, lighthearted illustrations are the real draw here and will be a big hit with construction-site lovers. They're sure to want to hear this one again and again.-Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library, Janesville, WIα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.