Dig!

This is one of our all time favorite books for our boys. There are a lot of ways for kids to participate with the story as Mr. Rally and his dog Lightning complete their list of construction jobs for the day. It is clever and fun and I recommend it highly!

This was given to my son as a gift and it is truly one of the best books we've seen that contains a plethera of construction scenes, roadblocks and comical illustrations that will have you digging for more. Help Lightning find the bones buried in each of Mr. Rally's jobs and count along as they go through a day's work. The classic art technique make this tale a truly timeless treasure.

After having to renew this book from the library every three weeks for the past several months, I finally decided to buy it! My two year old son absolutely loves it and never gets tired of us reading it to him. He is still noticing new things about the story and the illustrations that keep him interested. Mr. Rally, the backhoe driver is the main character, and he has five big digging jobs to do. We now "play Mr. Rally" by digging in our yard, and see "Rally trucks" at every construction site we pass! We even break up errands on weekends into "five big jobs to do" and count them off as we complete them. I highly recommend this book!

The theme is simple: a backhoe driver, accompanied by his dog, have five digging jobs to complete in one day. The story line, however, has a great combination of repetition and flavor. And the ending helps toddlers/preschoolers see the worker at home doing in a small way what he does at work (note the title!). The illustrations are just as important to the story, and offer a secondary plot line, involving the dog, not included in the text. There's plenty here to read but, more importantly, talk about with children. After at least 50 readings (maybe twice that many), I greatly appreciate how much there is in this little book.

I got this book because my son loves backhoes passionately! What I discovered is that it's a wonderful counting book. Most counting books are dull and formulaic (7 mice, 3 cats etc). Here the counting is seamlessly woven into the story in several different ways. I find kids really enjoy to learn to count this way as opposed to the mindless repitition. Cadence and repetition of the digging refrain is also very toddler friendly. Highly recommend for the digger in your life!