The Trouble With Tractors

Good artwork and Vocab, poor moral to story

The story offers an interesting journey for a farmer and her tracker through the farmland. The farmer and the tracker encounter various animals at the farm, but in each instance the tractor runs through and ruins something near the animals. The farmer yells back an apology but on goes the tractor. This happens in each pane up until the final page of the story where the animals flee to the barn and the tractor is finally ready to work. It is, unfortunately for the farmer and the tractor, now beginning to rain. While there could be an easy moral connecting poor behavior with not getting to accomplish one's goals, the focus of the artwork leaves the reader with the impression that the animals are all angry and the tractor enjoys breaking things. The animals at the end have frightened expressions. I honestly expected the story to be about twice as long, with the tractor working to repair the damage done in the first half... Or at least there being some sort of lesson made clear. It is a children's book and when I read a book to my son, he often wants to read it again with me or even by himself--this looked promising, but I would currently recommend against buying it. It will not be on my son's "shelf" to on his own.