We moved from a big city to a tiny country town three years ago (nearest WalMart 30 minutes away–Target is an unthinkable two hours away!). One of my favorite seasonal activities is watching with wonder the agricultural vehicles working in the fields and lumbering down our village’s roads. So Nathan Clement’s book, Big Tractor is written especially for me and every observant, machine-obsessed pre-schooler.

The book follows a farmer through the seasons of the year, talking to his tractor, as his fellow farmers years ago might have chatted with their draft horses. “Wake up, Ol’ Partner! It’s springtime! Time to hitch up the plow. Time to turn up the soil.” We see the farmer attach many different pieces of machinery to his tractor and use it to do all sorts of farming chores. At the end, there’s even a surprise use of the tractor that will make you smile, before the farmer announces, “We’re done, Ol’ Partner. It’s wintertime.”

The text is spare but vivid–this would be a good mentor text to talk about choosing active verbs–and the digital illustrations are sleek and modern.

Ever wonder how digital illustration happens? Nathan Clement demonstrates in this video.

Big Tractor by Nathan Clement. Boyds Mills Press: 2015.