Gets to Work! (A Tinyville Town Book)

by Brian Biggs

Overview

The Tinyville Town series, new from New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Brian Biggs, launches with three books: Tinyville Town Gets to Work!, a world-establishing picture book that introduces the town and its many residents, and two board books, I’m a Veterinarian and I’m a Firefighter. The series is set in a cozy community where the people are kind, everyone says hello when they’re walking down the street, the bus is always on time, and all the townsfolk do their part to keep things running smoothly. Everyone has a job to do in Tinyville Town. With a nod to the busy world of Richard Scarry and the neighborhood feel of Sesame Street, this new series will become a favorite read for preschoolers and is ideal for story time and class discussions about occupations and community helpers. Tinyville Town is a growing, thriving city full of interesting people. The townsfolk can’t wait to show readers around!

In Tinyville Town Gets to Work!, we see the evolution of a construction project to solve a problem. When there is a traffic jam on the Tinyville Town bridge, the residents decide to work together to build a new one. By following the hard work of the engineers and construction workers, readers will get to meet many different people in the town while watching the exciting new bridge take shape. The large picture book format and Biggs’s bright art brilliantly show the bridge, which was extensively researched to make it authentic for readers.

Every town has a bridge, and a trip over Tinyville’s new one will be fun for kids time and time again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419721335
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Series:	Tinyville Town Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Brian Biggs was born in Arkansas, moved to Texas, then moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design. He has also lived in Paris and San Francisco. He has worked as an art director and graphic designer, animator for interactivity and multimedia projects, teacher, writer, and illustrator. He has written and drawn comics and graphic novels, designed publications, and illustrated for many magazines and newspapers. He illustrates children’s books, including the New York Times bestselling Frank Einstein middle-grade series by Jon Scieszka, for magazines, newspapers, and advertising; posters, toys, and puzzles. He also works with animation, music, and various other media. His preschool series, Tinyville Town, will be published in summer 2016. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2016
Biggs kicks off the Tinyville Town series, focusing on hard-working, civic-minded folks, from the police officer to the trash collectors, who share their expertise to make a city work. This first entry introduces the setting and cast through a problem that needs solving: a traffic jam (“The baker can’t open his bakery. And the bus driver can’t get to the bus stop”). Biggs breaks the trouble down with admirable clarity, providing a backstory (“The old bridge was built when Tinyville Town was much smaller,” says the town engineer) and showing how a design must reflect a variety of needs (the city planner wants a bridge that can anticipate future growth, and the major wants a structure that’s “beautiful to look at”). For construction fans, there are three detailed spreads devoted to the bridge’s creation. The visuals are more stylized than in Biggs’s Everything Goes series—while Tinyville Town is diverse, everyone has the same toylike body shape—but the mood is similarly exuberant and attentive to detail. And the can-do spirit is off the charts. Two Tinyville Town board books are available simultaneously. Ages 3–5. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2016
PreS-Gr 1—Tinyville Town is a happy place where everybody has a job to do and does it well. From the baker to the bus driver, people take pride in their work, and the town runs smoothly. When a traffic jam stops the orderly flow of their day, the townspeople realize that they need a new bridge. The mayor agrees and declares that this new bridge will be bigger, stronger, and more beautiful than the first. Using broad and colorful cartoon art, the story chronicles what it takes to complete such a project. Charming spreads of construction workers and vehicles fill the book with just enough detail to be interesting while not getting overcrowded. The endpapers display a bird's-eye view of the town and pictures of all the workers for readers to have fun finding. This is the first book about Tinyville Town by the creator of the popular "Everything Goes" series, and children who enjoyed the earlier titles will gravitate to this one. VERDICT With a setting reminiscent of Richard Scarry's Busytown, this offering will be a hit with future city planners and engineers and all children who like to know how things work. Recommended for purchase.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI

School Library Journal

2016-06-28
In Tinyville Town, everyone’s got a job to do!Bakers bake. Bus drivers drive. Garbage collectors collect the garbage. But one day the garbage goes uncollected, the bakery doesn’t open on time, and the bus is late. Mayor Murphy (a black man whose job it is to solve problems) must find out what’s wrong. The problem is no one can get into Tinyville Town because there’s a traffic jam on the bridge that crosses the river. Tinyville Town needs a bigger bridge! With the help of the engineer and the city planner, Mayor Murphy plans a beautiful new bridge. Excavators dig, crane operators move huge blocks, and iron workers install arches. When the bridge is done, the whole town parades across; Hooray! Author and illustrator Biggs offers this companion to his career-centered Tinyville Town board-book series. The diverse (by the shades of their skin) people of Tinyville Town fill jobs with a healthy disregard for strict adherence to gender roles in this big, bright, and friendly construction tale. Simple text takes readers from the discovery of an issue to the creation of the solution with the help of Biggs’ signature ink-and-pencil illustrations colored in Photoshop. A crowd pleaser just about everywhere, no matter the size of the city, village, or town. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews