Dig, Dogs, Dig

April 8, 2013
Fans of Goodnight, Goodnight, Con-struction Site will eagerly dig into illustrator/designer Horvath’s vehicle-centric debut, first in a planned series. Early one morning, the dozen or so canine workers hit the ground running, driving a fleet of big machines to an urban construction site. Horvath’s punchy verse both describes the vehicles (“The loader picks up/ a rocky big bite/ and moves out the rubble/ with all its might”) and spurs on the laborers (“There’s trouble in the pit,/ We’ve hit something big./ Get down in the hole and dig, dogs, dig!”). The high points of the story are the unexpected excavation of a giant T. rex bone and the revelation of the finished project: an inviting park whose centerpiece is a display of the prehistoric fossil. Buzzing with activity, Horvath’s crisp, cartoon-styled digital art includes numerous details to pore over (including the delivery of a truckload of ducks for the park’s pond and a cat that darts mischievously around the worksite), giving the book a light comedic punch. Ages 4–8. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.