June Sobel Biography (1950-)

June Sobel's first picture book, B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC, tells the story of the building of a new amusement park one letter at a time, in rhyming couplets, from the point of view of two children who peer through the fence around the construction site. The children, and the other town residents who sometimes join them, watch expectantly as the seasons pass and the multi-ethnic, male and female construction crew progresses in their work, from bringing in the "Asphalt" to pave the park's roads through taking down the "Scaffolding" as the park nears completion. "Sobel has missed none of the details a young aficionado would revel in, from huge loaders to nails to pipes," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Finally, the watchers get to experience the "Z-O-O-M" of riding the new roller coaster for the first time. "This is a well-thought-out story that allows children to follow the progression of events," Marlene Gawron commented in School Library Journal.

Sobel told SATA: "Although I didn't know it at the time, my writing career began when my eighteen-month-old son, Adam, mysteriously said 'big trucks' from the back seat of the car. In his sleep, he would yell out, 'A bulldozer has no wheels.' I spent countless mornings parked on the side of construction sites as my two year old excitedly identified tractor scrapers, excavators, and backhoes. I read him every picture book published on the topic of construction. There was one book I couldn't find: an ABC book about building that also told a story. I decided to write that book—BIsfor Bulldozer."