If you are a Gilman pre-kindergartner through first grader who loves trucks, then Tuesday, October 3 was your lucky day! New York Times bestselling children’s book author Sherri Duskey Rinker, who wrote “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” and dozens of other books (many that include trucks), visited students in the Stevens Room for a lively read-aloud and presentation.

Rinker, who lives in Chicago, opened with a statement on the screen that read: “Books are magic.” She went on to explain, “Because every time you read a book or someone reads a book to you, a little something changes in your brain and you get just a little bit smarter. … I’m going to read a book to you today, and you’ll be a whole book smarter than you were when you first sat down here!” 

Before reading, she shared about her family, which includes her husband, two sons, and two dogs. Her younger son, who is in high school now, had a strong interest — to say the least! — in trucks when he was little. She showed photos of rooms in her home that had been overtaken by his toy trucks. The Gilman boys were amazed by the sights!

Rinker always read books to her sons before bed when they were small, and of course her younger son always wanted to read a book about trucks. She noticed that all the truck books tended to involve loud and bustling truck characters, which didn’t help settle her child at bedtime. That’s how she came up with the idea for “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site,” a book that is indeed still about trucks but also one that puts a bulldozer, a cement mixer, and other construction vehicles to sleep so they can get rest before they go to work in the morning.

Students enjoyed hearing Rinker's latest book, “Construction Site: Taking Flight,” before raising their hands for a Q&A. Inquisitive minds wanted to know when the author was born (1966), when her books would be in the school library (some already are; more coming soon), and why the excavator in the story was missing its eyes (she promised to look into it with the illustrator!).

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This event was sponsored by The Ivy Bookshop.