Tools Rule by Aaron Meshon (review)

“Okay, crew!!! Who’s ready to build?” calls T-Square, the leader of the backyard tool crowd. After all the tools are accounted for (“Workbench? Workbench?” “Ummm . . . You are standing on me! Here!”), there begins a flurry of activity as the tools set about noisily doing their assigned tasks. In the end, the satisfied tools put themselves away in the shed they’ve just constructed, and the lights go out. The story merely identifies the tools and watches them work, so it’s light on substance, and while there is some satisfaction in seeing the completed shed at the end, there’s not much plot development or trajectory involved in getting there. The occasional couplets are unpredictably inserted into the prose, and their scansion and rhyme are often clumsy (“Let’s work together to build a toolshed!/ We will have a place to rest our heads!”). The real draw here is in the witty personification of the tools that comes across through humorous quips (Hammer: “Hey, Nails, it’s time to build a wall!” Nail: “OK! Ouch! OK! OK! Ouch!”) and the abundant onomatopoeia. Meshon’s illustrations are hand inked and digitally colored, and their streamlined simplicity suggests coloring-book art, with thick black outlines, bright fields of solid color, and the only texture coming from the scanned grain of the workbench. Little builders may look past the limitations to find this an enjoyable storytime offering, while the final pages of good-night murmurings and snores in speech bubbles among the shed add further usability as a bedtime story for sleepy carpenters.