Exceptional photographs that range from tight close-ups to artful aerial shots highlight people and their farm machinery. Twelve pieces of big farm machinery are included, beginning with the ubiquitous tractor and moving on to introduce some less familiar, such as the grain drill and irrigation pivot. The brief text concisely outlines the function of each specialized piece, pointing out the prevalence of machinery on most modern farms compared to the days of horses and one-bottom plows. Author Cris Peterson writes with authority from her Grantsburg, Wisconsin, dairy farm, where many of the photos were taken. (Ages 5–9)

The day-to-day business of growing and harvesting crops for food is brought to dramatic life in this Nebraska Children's Agriculture Book of the Year as children see farmers and their machinery hard at work. Farmers lifted and hauled, cut and chopped, plowed and planted, waters and mowed by hand or with horses and simple equipment--until the first tractor appeared. Now there are tractors with eight wheels and tires big enough to stand in, skid steers with buckets for lifting, and sprayers that look like huge prehistoric birds, as well as many other modern computerized farming machines. Here's a look at farm machinery in the modern age.