Sherri Duskey Rinker Books In Order

Publication Order of Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site Books

Publication Order of Revver the Speedway Squirrel Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Picture Books

Sherri Duskey Rinker is a children’s book author who grew up loving picture books. She had an indulgent mother that introduced her to storytelling by buying her picture books.

Later on when she was a mother, she rekindled her love for the genre as she introduced her children to the many books she loved as a child. Rinker also got to experience many beautiful and new titles by new authors and she became so obsessed with picture books that she would buy a ton whenever she went shopping.
Her love for the genre probably came from the beautiful combinations of pictures and words in the books she grew up with. During her childhood, she remembers teetering back and forth between loving art and loving writing. However her first dream career was to be an artist though she wanted to be a poet when she was in grade school.

Rinker was a journalism major in college but she missed her art so much that she soon started taking classes in visual communications. Sherri felt like this was home as she could create compelling and beautiful compositions using text and visuals.

After graduating from college, Sherri Duskey Rinker went on to work as a graphic designer for twenty five years and designed all manner of brochures, logos and many other works.

Starting in 2007, she was getting tired of the endless revisions and pace of her career and also did not like the fact that she was expected to use cheap hacks to produce stock art and stock photography. Her dream career had been for work that demanded quality, innovation and beauty but it now felt that low price and speed were the only objectives.

During a very difficult period of financial crisis for her family, she felt stuck, overworked and disgruntled in a career she had come to hate. Rinker did the only thing she often did, which was to pray.

One night as sleep was overtaking her, she got the idea for her first picture book including the refrain and title and that is how her journey towards becoming an author began.

In 2008 while she was trying to figure out what to make of her career while being a working mother, Sherri Duskey Rinker penned “Construction Site,” her debut work. Unlike many authors, she was prepared for rejections and once she was done writing she started the process of submitting to the slush pile.
She made a long list of publishers who took in slush and started submissions. She had meticulous notes on how long it would take before she had to make the assumption of a rejection from each publisher. Ultimately, Rinker had a timeline and a list so that she could submit only to publishers over the course of three years.

She had done the research and knew that sometimes it would be next to impossible to get any publisher to be interested. But what she had working for her was a determination to be persistent no matter how long it took. She never expected that the first publisher she submitted to would love her work which is just what happened.

Dukey Rinker is still not so sure what made the picture book a success though she thinks the beautiful illustrations surely did help. It also did not hurt that she hit upon a simple and universal idea of big trucks which kids adore.

Sherri Duskey Rinker’s “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” is a classy bed time story set at a construction site. It is an unorthodox setting but the author and illustrator tie the several themes in the novel neatly.

These are anthropomorphized vehicles that have a cheerful demeanor and similar graphic feel to “I’m Dirty” and “I Stink” by Jim and Kate McMullan. The first five big machines are pictured hard at work as they are set in a backdrop of a blazing sky.

The sun is setting and the trucks have done everything they can for their day but now it is time to end the fun. One by one they will head off to test their sleepy heads, yawning as they try to find some sleep.

They will wake up the following day to endless adventures once again. Each truck has a task to do at the end of the day and encourage each other to complete it before they say their good nights.

Rinker writes his rhythmic verse and asserts that the trucks love what they do. The Dump Truck usually moves the dirt all over the construction site and dumps it with a happy face. Rinker does a good job telling the story but it is the illustrations which embellish it to make for a boisterous novel that will delight readers.

“Steam Train, Dream Train” by Sherri Duskey Rinker is an informative and fun story about teamwork, cooperation and construction vehicles. The team at the construction site is waking up to a brand new day as they stretch, fuel up and get ready to work.

When they put out their plans for the day, they are awed since this is about to be the biggest project they ever did. But they are not sure if they can do it all alone and hence they invite another crew of heavy machinery and construction vehicles.

All the machines collaborate to do the work with each bringing their unique skill set. At the end of the day, they are worn out but their teamwork has made it possible to complete the work.

This is a phenomenal work for children interested in construction vehicles. The author writes cheerful rhyming verse and describes each machine and what work it does. The endearing personality of each machine, the beautiful illustrations and the themes of cooperation and hard work make this an excellent bedtime read.

Sherri Duskey Rinker’s “Mighty, Mighty Construction Site” sees the construction trucks completing what they set out to do for the day.
The work is critical but the rhyming verse of the story shows that every vehicle has a nice surprise once they are done with their assigned tasks. It does seem that someone took the trouble of wrapping up presents which have been tied up in ribbons for each truck.

Readers will love seeing the trucks unwrap their gifts with delight after a hard day at work. Fans of the debut novel “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” will love the spirit of this novel with its sprightly characters, rhyming verse and excellent illustrations.