Asphalt!
Here’s the ultimate construction book series for all young construction site fans!
Mastermind illustrator Salla Savolainen rolls out with Asphalt!, the first part of the new trilogy. Welcome to the world of cement mixers, diggers, bulldozers, dump trucks, rumbling rollers, graders and pavers, fascination gizmos, loads of know-how and action. The noise, sights, and constant activity of the construction site make each day interesting. Learning about building roads and how they are constructed has never been so much fun.
Grab your helmet and gloves and dive deep into the world of the construction site. Site manager Koistinen and the rest of the busy crew take the reader through all steps of building a road, the narrative is peppered with lots of details and spreads include additional fact boxes to keep even the biggest enthusiasts interested.
The next books in the series introduce readers to the busy and noisy daily life at a cement plant and a wrecking yard.
Salla Savolainen is known for her distinctive style in other collaborations, including the horse series Star Hill Stables (Tikkumäki), which has been translated into ten languages.
From Savolainen’s interview with the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper:
‘Savolainen thinks that construction sites are an interesting part of lively urban culture, which is nowadays blocked by obstructing fences that completely hide the view. … Savolainen was first inspired by asphalt. She tells that it may sound like a limited subject, but it opens many bypaths. “We walk on asphalt all the time, yet we don’t think about it. There is 50 000 kilometres of paved road in Finland. Milk trucks alone drive 60 000 kilometres which sounds wild, even though some of the routes are unpaved roads.”’
info
Year of publication
2021
Original title
Asfalttia!
Page count
48
Original publisher
WSOY
Original language of publication
Finnish
Rights sold
SwedenEstoniaCzech RepublicRussiaThailandPolandNorwayDenmarkGermanySlovenia
Reviews
finnland-tour.de
"From now on, some children's hearts will beat faster, because with her construction site series, Salla Savolainen has hit the nerve of technology-loving children of kindergarten age - and even a little beyond. Although there are already several books about lorries, diggers and building sites, this one is well worth a look, as the idea behind this series, initially in three volumes, is very special. (...)After reading the book, there are not many questions left unanswered about asphalt as a building material.(...)Construction site equipment, systems and work steps are explained in a child-friendly way. The text is accompanied by lively, humorous illustrations similar to those in a hidden object book - even if it is not. The drawings of the different-sized machines and the depiction of everyday life on a building site are what make this book so special (...) A big compliment goes to both Salla Savolainen and the translator Elina Kritzokat, who did a lot of research beforehand. They obtained a wealth of information from construction companies and people who deal with construction sites daily. Only in this way was it possible to describe and present everything so coherently and precisely."
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