I'm Dirty! ¦ I Stink!

These two robust hardbacks about big machines that are dirty and smelly but extremely useful are full of action and humour. The dynamic, anthropomorphic illustrations and the text written as if the machines are talking will delight young children. ‘I’ve got steel arms, hydraulic rams, and a specialized, maximized, giant-sized LOADER BUCKET’ boasts the backhoe loader in I’m Dirty! The New York rubbish truck in I Stink! commands: ‘Engine? ROAR! Pistons? Bring on the crusher blade. Squeeze them! Crush them! Mash them! Smash them!’ Size, orientation and strength of print are used imaginatively, often to suggest noise and movement. Lots of pre-school children will love these books, but slightly older children will appreciate them too. There is some advanced vocabulary, including technical terms, to learn and savour. In I Stink! the bags are ‘compacted’ and we have ‘dual operation’ and ‘tailgate’. And in I’m Dirty! there are words like ‘stabilizer legs’, ‘back-drag’ and ‘maximise’.

I love the numbered hilarious list of rubbish items in I’m Dirty! and the rubbish alphabet in I Stink! The verdict? – fast moving, original and entertaining and splendid books to enjoy at home or in school.