R M Price-Mohr
Freddie at the building site is the fifth book in a series of five books about Freddie, a fireman, and his friends. In the first book Freddie rescues a cat, in the second book Freddie meets Andy who drives and ambulance, in the third book Freddie and Andy meet Dave who drives a digger, and in the fourth book they all meet Polina who drives a police car. In this book, Tom, who drives a truck, is working at a building site. Tom climbs up a ladder, but the ladder gets broken when Dave accidently drives his digger into it. Dave calls for Freddie to come with his fire engine. Freddie uses the ladder on his fire engine to rescue Tom. These books can be used as ’read to’ books for preschool children or as ’read with’ books for beginner readers. There are full-colour illustrations throughout. The simple line drawings appeal to young children and the emotions of the characters are clearly depicted. The text uses alliteration to support phonic skills, and repetition to assist with word recognition or identification. The focus on vehicles, or transport, is intended to appeal especially to boys. The books are best read in sequence as they gradually introduce Freddie’s friends. Additionally, the books repeat vocabulary introduced in previous books to assist with long-term word identification.
