Dig, Scoop, Ka-boom!

April 15, 2013
An accessible, rhyming text drives this story-with-a-twist about a construction site, inviting new readers to hone their emerging skills. Initial spreads depict a variety of vehicles engaged in digging, scooping, lifting and so on, detailing the activities of a construction site. Varied visual perspectives in the art draw the eyes to the different machines, but they can be disorienting--particularly in the worm's-eye view on the spread reading "Digger's teeth bite the ground," which does not show the "[t]racks skid[ding] around" as indicated by the text. On the other hand, while some readers may wonder why the vehicles' operators are not seen in the art, this omission is satisfyingly resolved in a long-shot spread that depicts a group of children playing with toy trucks in a sand pile. The vehicles are clearly miniversions of those from prior pages, and it's refreshing to see both boys and girls and at least one child of color included in the group "working like a team." From here, the narrative draws the children's play to a conclusion by book's end, providing readers with a fictive parallel to their own accomplishments in finishing the book: "Good work, crew!" An early-reader book to build on. (Early reader. 4-6)

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June 1, 2013
Preschool-G Six construction trucks gather at a sandy site, ready to start their work. The dozer shoves the sand aside, while the digger bites into the ground. The loader lifts rocks and crashes them (Ka-boom!) into the back of the dump truck, which zooms away. The big mixer chugs away, and the crane's long arm swivels to move a beam. After close-up views of the individual trucks at work, a wider view shows the sandbox where five children are operating them. It's not an entirely novel concept to older fans of truck books, but chances are it will surprise younger kids. A Step 1 selection from the Step into Reading series, this simple story is written in rhyme, ending with Job's all done. / Play is, too. / Engines off now. / Good work, crew! A good short book to keep in mind for toddlers who love trucks as well as truck lovers who are ready to read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)