2018 School Spending Survey Report
Digger, Dozer, Dumper
illus. by David Slonim. 32p. Candlewick. Aug. 2013. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-5078-0. LC 2012947724.
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PreS-Gr 2—These delightful, finely crafted, informative, fun verses can serve as Common Core exemplar texts while satisfying truck and poetry fans. Each rig's function is described with great care and attention to language with seamless rhymes, alliteration, and assonance gracing the selections. Nothing seems forced about Vestergaard's rhymes; they're smooth and sure, and easy to set to memory: "After the asphalt's dumped and spread/in sticky, long black lines,/the road must cure. You can be sure…/Steamroller's close behind…." About the cherry picker, Vestergaard writes, "The picker pauses in the sky,/plucks its target,/then…/gently, slowly, gracefully, sets it down again," and in a tour-de-force ending: "digger, dozer, dumper, grader/backhoe, roller, excavator/…." Each poem is presented on a spread with lighthearted acrylic and charcoal illustrations that often include a girl and two boys of various hues and a yellow hard-hat-wearing pup, as well as the rigs themselves with hints of personification in their headlight eyes. There are 16 machines in all: garbage truck, forklift, street sweeper, and so on. The cartoon children are depicted operating the machines, but the final illustration reverses the relationship of object to child; suddenly the children are quite big and their trucks are small and handheld. This book is intelligent and informative, with craft, rhythm, great art, and entertainment.—Teresa Pfeifer, The Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MAFrom a street sweeper's early morning rounds to an excavator at the construction site to a snowplow braving "blowing squalls / or sleety storms," these playful verses sing the praises of sixteen trucks and the work they do. The lighthearted acrylic and charcoal illustrations enhance the poems' humor and give their subjects loads of personality. There's some refreshing gender equality, too, as six of the trucks are female: "Two levers make her tires whir. / Both front: she goes. / Both back: retreat! / She zips and turns across the street." The poems, at their best, not only describe the trucks' jobs but also reveal something of their spirit. The cherry picker "pauses in the sky, / plucks its target, / then. . . / gently, slowly, gracefully / sets it down again"; the bulldozer "pushes piles of dirt and junk, / and levels trees and brush. / He's not a bully, either, / although he's big and tough." The same three children and friendly dog are pictured throughout, in drivers' seats and working alongside their truck friends. The final scene reveals that the kids are actually playing with toy trucks, and while that toys-are-real conceit may not be new, it never gets old for a child audience. Digger, Dozer, Dumper will make light work of even the toughest storytimes. kitty flynn
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