Mighty 🚜Machines ~ Big 📚Book of Big Machines

Adrian loves transportation - Big Mighty machines in particular! He is in awe every time he reads about them or even better - sees them in action!

Do you need to dig a big hole in the ground or a long ditch? Then you need a power shovel, which is like a huge scoop -"bucket" with a long handle, that sits on a crawler. Miners use power shovels to dig up coal, and almost every building site would have power shovel excavator. A driver sits in a cab on a rotating platform known as the "house", and pushes and pulls levers to work the shovel.

After witnessing the construction site, Adrian was obsessed with building site machines and anything that is big and powerful. The Usborne Big Book of Big Machines (buy here) features some of the world's biggest machines found on building sites, farms, airports and dockyards. 

Constructed of thick, sturdy pages, this book has accurate yet simple bright illustrations with the names of machines, their functions and some of their key parts. Sensible groupings include "Farm Machines", "Flying Machines", "Road Machines", "Building Site Machines" and "Dockside Machines", as well as a mining machine, an excavator and a page of 'Biggest, longest, fastest...". The recommended age is 4+ but this book captivates my three year old who loves the content and colorful bright illustrations - some of which unfold four-page wide. He also loves learning the names of some less commonly seen machines while having fun acting out some of the machines' functions.

Do you want to make a road or build a house? Then you need a bulldozer to get the ground ready. A bulldozer is a tractor with a big super-strong metal blade in the front that goes up and down. Most bulldozers are crawler tractors. Bulldozer can knock down bushes and small trees, and it can also push piles of dirt and make the ground smooth.   

A road roller is used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Rollers are used also at landfills or in agriculture.

Building site machines. 

This excavator has crawler tracks to help it move over bumpy ground. The bucket has sharp metal teeth which cut through earth. Excavators are also called diggers, mechanical shovels, or 360-degree excavators (tracked excavators are sometimes called "trackhoes"). 

Adrian was so excited to witness an excavator in action up close! 

Farm Machines.

For the biggest of machines, like the biggest aircraft here, the book opens up two giant foldout pages. 

The power and size of Mighty Machines is so impressive for a little mind! And since we like putting theory into practice, we could not think of a better way for Adrian to relate to all these big machines than by seeing them first-hand - a truly unforgettable experience!