The Earth Machine
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Lying in bed at night, a young boy anticipates the morning, when his father will show him what he does for work. The boy's imagination runs wild, weaving an intricate and intriguing scenario that takes the reader on a journey to the very center of the earth.Children's LiteratureAlex and his father live at the bottom of a mountain. Father goes to work every day but Alex has no idea what he does. When Father promises to take him to work the next day, Alex is very excited. Father takes Alex into an elevator that goes up and up to the top of the mountain. There, Father tells Alex that he is in charge of all the machines that make the earth work. He shows Alex some of the machines, then takes him deep in the earth where he shows him the computer that controls all the machines. Alex is amazed that Father has such an important job. When Father tells him that one day Alex is expected to help, Alex is overwhelmed. Then he wakes up to find that Father's important job was only a dream. While this concept is very interesting, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The prose is very flat at times and never truly conveys the wondrous things that Alex sees. The "It was only a dream" ending is so cliche that I almost did not believe that someone would put it in a modern children's book, yet there it is. Tong's illustrations are much better than his text and show some truly amazing scenes of the earth machine.
