'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Wednesday 17 October 2018

Review: Big Digger Little Digger

Here’s a new picture book for all those digger loving kids out there. Little Digger loves to dig. He lives on a construction site and enjoys working hard and digging holes.

One day he is faced with an especially big hole to dig. He’s worried he won’t be strong enough but he’s ready to try his best. But just as he’s about to start… a new digger appears. A BIG digger.

Big Digger digs down deep. He starts digging the big hole and poor Little Digger is left with nothing to do. 

Little Digger tries to help the other construction vehicles, but he can’t dump like dump truck, can’t mix like the cement mixer and can’t move things like the bulldozer. What will he do now?

Then he hears a cry for help! It’s Big Digger. He’s dug a hole so big that he can’t get out! But what can Little Digger do? He’s not big enough to pull Big Digger out on his own. He’s going to have to come up with a plan.

This is a fun picture book with a nice underdog story that will have the kids cheering Little Digger along. Despite being about diggers, this is really a universal story of the power of hard work and teamwork and proving that even if you’re small, you can achieve great things.

Parton’s illustrations are fun and quirky and give personality to the diggers and their construction vehicle friends. I love the image of the huge hole, with the odd dinosaur bone and shopping trolley unearthed, and a tiny Little Digger peering over the edge! 

The construction site itself is authentic in its depiction and the end papers give a labelled diagram of Big Digger and Little Digger, which helps in answering the endless pre-schooler questions of ‘what’s that?’.

My four-year-old absolutely loves this book (I almost know it off by heart!) and delights in calling out “Big Digger dig down DEEP”. A great addition to any pre-schooler's library.


Title: Big Digger Little Digger
Author: Timothy Knapman
Illustrator: Daron Parton
Publisher: Walker, $24.99
Publication Date: 1 September 2018
Format: Hard Cover
ISBN: 9781406355833
For ages: 3 - 6
Type: Picture Book