Drilling Machines

Children's Literature - Sharon Oliver

This title from the "Machines That Build" series introduces the reader to the many uses of drilling machines. A definition is provided for the machine, along with an explanation of the machine's parts, how it works and the varied uses for drilling machines. This is a nice series, with short and easily understood sentence construction. The few long words such as construction are given simple phonetic pronunciation guides. The text is large with a generous amount of white space on the pages. Words that are further defined in the glossary appear in the text as italicized and in a different color. A brief history of drilling machines is provided, as well as a few historical photographs. The book's main illustrations are large, mostly full-page photographs of the machine at work. The pages are dotted with small sketches of engineering and control diagrams. The overall color scheme of orange, yellow and black is cheerily suggestive of construction sites. An activity idea is provided at the end that is intended to help readers understand and explore the physics behind the machine. This is a great series for anyone interested in big machines, so any library serving six-year-old boys is sure to find this a welcome addition to the collection. A glossary and index are provided along with suggestions for further reading. Reviewer: Sharon Oliver