Family Reunion

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 17, 2015

Review

First published by Steers in 2013. These books are wonderful for your tractor-loving, farm-loving young readers. Truly a fantastic series highlighting many, many aspects of farm life.

In this title, Tractor Mac learns about Iron Dave, the steam engine who passes through Mac's neighbor's farm, and the various cars in his "family." When Tractor Mac suggests that he is a one-of-a-kind tractor, Iron Dave tells him to be at the tracks the next day. When he arrives, he sees that Iron Dave is pulling many red tractors and thinks that they must be his family. He investigates further thinking that he belongs with these tractors instead of his farm family, but he learns that every tractor on Iron Dave is waiting to go to its new home and get its own family. This makes Tractor Mac realize that he has a family and they may not look like him, but they are his and they are wonderful. A message about the different ways that we define our family is a nice one for kids. The illustrations are bright and detailed and the book makes a nice read-aloud. The end papers have a detailed, named illustration of the subjects of the book, in this Iron Dave the steam engine in the front, and Tractor Mac in the back. A wonderful addition to any library collection - once children know Tractor Mac, they will want to hear about all of his adventures and meet all of his friends.

Overall Book Score: very good