NPM 2022 Day 18: Construction People

Since I mentioned dirt yesterday, I feel like that’s the perfect lead in to CONSTRUCTION PEOPLE, another poetry picture book collection by Lee Bennett Hopkins.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this collection ever since I read SCHOOL PEOPLE back in 2019.  CONSTRUCTION PEOPLE, just like that other picture book poetry collection, looks at all the jobs that work together to make a final product work.  In the previous collection, it was all the people and their jobs that make a school run.  Here, it’s all the people and their jobs that help make a building come to life.

As per usual, I enjoyed a LOT of the poems in this collection by a variety of poets.  I debated on sharing the “Song of the Welders” by Allan Wolf which I also greatly enjoyed.  However, I decided to share the one that captured my heart not only because it clearly tied in with a younger reader, but because the illustrations took this poem and ran with it.  Ellen Shi (who did the illustrations in the original collection as well) added another dimension to this poem on this page, as well as at the end of the book (with a surprise ending illustration that ties back to this poem that I won’t spoil).  It’s the perfect marriage of text and pictures so this is the one I chose to share.

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!