Review by Booklist Review
Ages 1^-4. For all those young preschoolers who love heavy trucks and machines, here's a bright, noisy book to connect words and pictures with the excitement of the building site and the vroom of the streets. Each double-page spread is about one kind of vehicle--fire engine, tractor, digger, garbage truck, crane, transporter, dump truck, rescue helicopter, road roller, bulldozer--and the simple repetitive rhymes have the thumping rhythm of the machines in motion ("Diggers are good at dig, dig, digging, / scooping up the earth, and lifting and tipping. / They make huge holes with their dig, dig, digging" ). The pictures, in clear shapes and brilliant colors, show people with machines swooshing fire hoses, loading garbage, rumbling and tumbling rocks, with power and immediacy. A great way to demonstrate to the lap-sitting crowd that books are about the thrilling things they see and the games they play. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kids who clamor for construction site action will appreciate the board book edition of Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo, illus. by Alex Ayliffe. PW wrote of the original edition, "this vibrant volume explores the unique capabilities of 11 vehicles, from construction trucks to rescue helicopters." (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-Bold, bright spreads present visual word poems about large trucks, tractors, and cranes and the work they do. Often the shape of the rhyme reflects the action performed by the machine. For example, the bold, black print describing fire engines arcs and curves like the water splashing from the fireman's hose. Text about the bulldozer bumps across the page. "Bulldozers are good at push, push, pushing, over rough, bumpy ground, scraping and shoving." The verse on every page ends with the refrain, "They can work all day." Although not all of the rhymes are equally satisfying, they successfully move readers from page to page, truck to truck. The large, simple images in vivid colors and wide, uncluttered spreads will appeal to young children. Stylized skyscrapers dot the horizon in contrasting colors of purple and pink or blue and white, against very blue, sunny skies. The people are all Lego-like in appearance. The last spread, at the end of a very busy book, quiets its colors, with motors off and machines at rest. This book will rev the engines of those youngsters who love vehicles.-Alice Casey Smith, Sayreville Public Schools, Parlin, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Tractors are good at pull, pull, pulling, / plowing up the field with a squelch, squelch, squelching. / Round go the wheels. See the dirt flying! / They can work all day. Colorful cut-paper artwork shows various vehicles involved in the specific activities mentioned in the bouncy rhyming text. A final spread in which all the vehicles rest all night after a busy day makes the book good bedtime reading. From HORN BOOK Fall 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Diggers are good at dig, dig, digging, / scooping up the earth, and lifting and tipping. / They make huge holes with their dig, dig, digging. / They can work all day." With simple rhymes and bold illustrations, Mayo (Wiggle Waggle Fun, 2002, etc.) and Ayliffe (The Busy Building Book, not reviewed, etc.) introduce 11 working vehicles. As the title and cover suggest, most of them are used in construction. Created out of cut and torn papers, Ayliffe's vibrant collages fill each double-page spread. "Diggers," for example, shows the bright red machine against an expanse of mustard yellow earth; a turquoise blue fence surrounds the site and pink, lilac, and blue buildings speckle the horizon. Mayo widens her lens by putting the spotlight on "Fire Engines" and "Rescue Vehicles." Depicting the former, Ayliffe places the vehicle against a purple slope and yellow sky; the fire engine reaches across the length of the page while an arc of water, which appears to be created out of translucent tracing paper, blasts into a burning building ("Fire engines are good at race, race, racing. / Look out! Look out! Bright lights flashing. / Hoses at the ready for swoosh, swoosh, swooshing. / They can work all day"). Tractors and garbage trucks are also highlighted. The final illustration shows the vehicles cloaked in twilight hues ("Brakes on, / engines off, the sun is setting. / No beep-beeping, no vroom-vrooming. / Shhh! / They can rest all night"). Young children, fascinated by the sounds, actions, and sheer enormity of these vehicles will find much to like in these busy scenes. (Picture book. 3-5)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
