‘A Very, Very Noisy Tractor’ is curiously inspirational
This morning, you got up and brrrrrrrrooooomed to breakfast.
After that, you stomp-hopped to brush your teeth, zoomed back to get dressed, rummaged around for your favorite toy, grabbed your stuff and clomped out the door to greet the day.
And your mom knew where you were the whole time because you weren’t exactly quiet, were you? In the new book “A Very, Very Noisy Tractor” by Mar Pavόn and Novila Uyá, everybody in the area knows who’s coming down the road.
It was a quiet day in the country, when a lady with a HUGE hairdo came putt-putting down the road on a tractor. A pizza delivery boy heard her coming and hollered that “Ladies with crazy hairdos shouldn’t drive tractors,” but she never heard it because the tractor was too noisy.
A few miles later, someone with thick glasses shouted that “Ladies with glasses shouldn’t drive tractors!” but the lady on the tractor (who wore thick glasses, too) never heard it because the tractor was too loud.
Did we say that the lady on the tractor was wearing a raincoat? She was, and a mailman yelled that ladies wearing raincoats shouldn’t be allowed on tractors. Of course, the lady on the tractor didn’t hear him.
Soon, she pulled off the road and headed for a village filled with flowers and happy colors. But the villagers weren’t so happy – they shouted at the lady, too, and said that people like her shouldn’t drive tractors.
But a young boy on the side of the road was curious because he hoped to have a tractor just like that one someday. He had a few questions and the lady answered him, but she couldn’t stay long. Her husband – who was a very good cook – had dinner waiting for her, so she jumped on the tractor and cha-chugged off down the road.
At the end of the road, there was a man with a HUGE moustache and a HUGE smile. He didn’t care what the lady wore or what colors she had on. The little girl with him didn’t care what the lady on the tractor carried, either.
They saw what they saw, and it was love.
It’s hard not to be totally charmed by “A Very, Very Noisy Tractor.” It’s cute, filled with positivity, and is curiously inspirational.
It’s also a little odd: adult sensibilities might notice that authors Mar Pavόn and Nivola Uyá seem to end their book twice – but turn the page, and there’s plenty of story left. That’s not bad, from a kids’ point-of-view, but it’s something for parents to remember as their story-reading starts to wind down.
Still, the good here vastly outweighs that relatively minor oddity: kids will love the humor and the appealing characters. Adults will enjoy the dream-affirming message inside, and the illustrations are absolutely irresistible.
Translated from a Spanish version, I think this book is just-right for 3-to-7-year-olds who love a good read-aloud. If that’s your little one, then “A Very, Very Noisy Tractor” is a book they’ll shout about.
