Going to the job site with Dad When darkness falls and bedtime comes, Papa tucks Alex in, then puts on his hard hat and goes to work. Papa is an engineer who works at night. "Take me with you," Alex says. "Not tonight," says Papa. But one night Papa has a surprise -- a hard hat for Alex! He takes Alex with him to the construction site, where excavators rumble and cement mixers hum. As his dream comes true, Alex gets to be a night worker just like Papa. Kate Banks's evocative text and Georg Hallensleben's colorful paintings combine to make a unique bedtime book that will delight all children, especially those who are fascinated by big machines.  The Night Worker is a 2001 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. Every night, Alex's night-working father kisses him good night, then puts on his hard hat and goes out to work. One night Papa surprises his son with his very own hard hat and invites him along. The mysterious world they enter is very different from Alex's daytime life. The streets are populated with delivery people, street sweepers, and dog walkers. But most exciting of all is Papa's construction site, where the rattle and clang of heavy machinery means that a big building is going up. Alex watches as the bulldozers, cement mixers, and cranes do their jobs, and he even gets a chance to be a night worker himself for a brief, shining moment! Seen through a small boy's eyes, the construction site with its "midnight mountain" of soil and excavators that "groan like a giant rolling over in bed," is a truly wondrous, memorable event. Georg Hallensleben's heavy outlines and thick, muted nighttime colors melt together like liquid crayons. Alex's pride and curiosity in his father's life--and his father's reciprocal desire to share his adult world with his son--is touching and sincere. This is a lovely book for families to read together as a touch-off point for discussions about just what mom and dad do when they head off to work every day. Kate Banks and Hallensleben have teamed up on several other notable and award-winning picture books, including And If the Moon Could Talk . (Ages 4 to 7) --Emilie Coulter PreSchool-Grade 2-The mysterious world of a father's nighttime work is explored in a loving, gentle manner, making it perfect for sharing. Alex's dad is an engineer who goes to work when the rest of the city goes to bed. Donning a hard hat, the boy joins him on the construction site one evening and is fascinated by the cranes, dump trucks, and cement mixers. These machines take on mythic proportions in the darkness: the excavator "sinks its teeth into the earth and lets out a groan like a giant rolling over in bed," a bulldozer "pushes soil into a midnight mountain." The illustrations have an impressionistic quality; bright yellow stars "shine like beacons for the night workers" against the deep blues of the sky. Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Night falls. Bedtime comes," and so begins another sublime evening story from the creators of And If the Moon Could Talk (1998). This time, though, instead of imagining dreamy, presleep adventures from under cozy quilts, the story's child steps out into the dark city streets, pushing bedtime back until dawn. Every night, Alex asks to go to work with his father, a construction worker on the late shift. Finally, Papa gives Alex a hard hat, and together they "head quietly into the night." At the site, the machines clang and grind, moving earth and pouring concrete under the starry sky. Alex relishes his chance in a dump truck's cab, pulling the levers--" a night worker, too" --before he returns home to bed while the city wakes. Banks' elegant, simple words and poetic images and rhythms evoke the book's exciting activity and the secure comfort Alex feels with his father. With thick brush strokes and deep, satisfying primary and earth colors, Hallensleben's paintings extend the story's balance of exhilarating intensity and reassuring calm. Young ones will be mesmerized by the beautifully composed scenes of machines at work, and at story's end, they will feel Papa's protective arm around their shoulders as they sink into the warm cozy bed right along with Alex. A lovely, affecting portrait of a father and son and of the night world. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "[A] sublime evening story . . . Banks' elegant, simple words and poetic images and rhythms evoke the book's exciting activity . . . Hallensleben's paintings extend the story's balance of exhilarating intensity and reassuring calm . . . A lovely, affecting portrait of a father and son and of the night world." -Starred, Booklist "The pictured warmth of the father-son relationship combines with restrained yet poetic text to make this 'take your son to work night' a special one indeed." -- Kirkus Reviews "A mesmerizing description of a busy nighttime realm, illuminated by bla