Canine Skyscraper Caper: Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail by Joseph Horvath

GET GOING, CREW.
WE'RE HEADING DOWNTOWN.
AN OLD BUILDING
NEEDS TO COME DOWN!

A mixed group of canine construction mutts--Duke, Roxy, Buddy, Max, Spot, and Spike--clap on their tool belts and hard hats and head off for their current job site, with their wrecking-ball crane ready to take down a derelict building.

Before long, the grader scrapes the scrap up and the Dig Dogs dump truck hauls off the old materials to be recycled, and the crew swings into construction mode. They lay the pipes for plumbing and power, pour concrete for the foundation, and start to construct the high steel framework. Nimble iron team dogs, "a high-flying breed," ride the orange steel girders as the cranes swing them into position.

THIS CREW IS THE BEST,
EACH DOG HIGHLY SKILLED,
LET'S KEEP GOING TOGETHER,
BUILD, DOGS, BUILD!

With a tip of the hard hat to P.D. Eastman's classic Go, Dog. Go! (I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books), in verse and art style, in his brand-new Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail (Harper, 2014) Joseph Horvath takes those travelling dogs into the construction trades with bouncy rhymes and bright, jelly-bean colored illustrations of construction equipment and operators as a skyscraper goes up, complete with penthouse with pool where the builder dogs party and splash before moving on to their next job.

GREAT JOB, DOGS!
OUR WORK HERE IS THROUGH!
TOMORROW WE'RE OFF.
THERE'S A NEW JOB TO DO.

For kids who love BIG construction machinery, this book is a good introduction to the world of work in the building trades. Author Horvath actually provides a fairly detailed description of the up side of this skyscraper caper, step by step, from laying the pipes to laying the carpet and plumbing in the fixtures. The dogs are jaunty and jolly and the subject is a perennial favorite with primary-aged kids, as Horvath builds on the high interest of his target audience.   Pair this one with Horvath's equally lighthearted look at getting to the bottom of building in Horvath's earlier Dig, Dogs, Dig: A Construction Tail.