Grandpa's Tractor    by Michael Garland Order:  USA  Can Boyds Mills Press, 2011 (2011) Hardcover     Reviewed by Bob Walch In this evocative picture book Grandpa Joe takes his grandson Timmy out to show him where the family farm once stood. Although the house and barn are in ruins, the pair discover an old red tractor sitting in some weeds. Seeing the tractor again, Grandpa Joe remembers all the things he and his father did with the machine when they lived on the farm. As he shares his memories with Timmy, the retired farmer calls up images of the days when the tractor was used for moving bales of hay, plowing the fields, pulling the planting machine, and harvesting the crops. The family would also use the red tractor to pull their vegetable stand down to the road where they sold produce, and during the winter it pulled the sled that carried firewood from the forest to the house. Reliving the past and explaining the many uses of the tractor, Grandpa Joe gives his grandson and the reader a sense of how important a tractor was in the everyday life of the farmer. Unfortunately, today highly specialized machines do the various jobs that were once carried out by this workhorse of rural life. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Kids books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews