Asphalt!

By Salla Savolainen

Here’s the ultimate construction book series for all young construction site fans!  

Mastermind illustrator Salla Savolainen rolls out with Asphalt!, the first part of the new series. Welcome to the world of cement mixers, diggers, bulldozers, dump trucks, rumbling rollers, graders and pavers, fascination gizmos, loads of know-how and action. The noise, sights, and constant activity of the construction site make each day interesting. Learning about building roads and how they are constructed has never been so much fun.

Grab your helmet and gloves and dive deep into the world of the construction site. Site manager Koistinen and the rest of the busy crew take the reader through all steps of building a road, the narrative is peppered with lots of details and spreads include additional fact boxes to keep even the biggest enthusiasts interested.  

The next books in the series introduce readers to the busy and noisy daily life at a cement plant and a wrecking yard.

Salla Savolainen is known for her distinctive style in other collaborations, including the horse series Star Hill Stables (Tikkumäki), which has been translated into ten languages.
 
From Savolainen’s interview with the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper:

‘Savolainen thinks that construction sites are an interesting part of lively urban culture, which is nowadays blocked by obstructing fences that completely hide the view. … Savolainen was first inspired by asphalt. She tells that it may sound like a limited subject, but it opens many bypaths. “We walk on asphalt all the time, yet we don’t think about it. There is 50 000 kilometres of paved road in Finland. Milk trucks alone drive 60 000 kilometres which sounds wild, even though some of the routes are unpaved roads.”’

Publishing information

Rights sold

About the author

Salla Savolainen (b. 1962) is a celebrated and productive illustrator, who excels in children’s books and is known for her varied styles and successful collaborations with many authors. She has also written four picture books herself.Savolainen’s drawings have been shortlisted and awarded several prizes including the Kukko award in 2013 for non-fiction. She has also been nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize three times.In 2021, Savolainen began her Construction book series which the illustrator has also written herself. The detailed and fact-filled series consists of titles, Asphalt!, Concrete!, and Junk!, of which the third will come out in 2023. Masterfully created, Savolainen has made a series that is both incredibly informative and fun to read. The series has already been pre-empted in its entirety in Sweden, Estonia, and Germany.