ALA Booklist

Celebrating children's--especially boys'--seemingly universal fascination with huge earthmovers, this indulges one boy's fantasies. As the child-narrator elaborately excavates the sand with his toy digger, he pictures himself driving a huge digger while his little brother sleeps. He does good work. He moves metal, scoops rocks, and splashes mud; he also thinks about digging a pond, fashioning a hill, and creating a park where he and his brother can play. Until little brother grows older, however, big brother is content to convey his imaginative enthusiasm to his sibling as they splash in the tub and read together in bed. The joyful acrylic illustrations and the sparse, confident text will delight other digger-wannabes.

Horn Book

A young boy who dreams of buying and operating his own digger imagines that he uses it to build a playground that both he and his baby brother can enjoy. With just a few carefully selected words, this gentle fantasy addresses a young child's ambivalence toward and gradual acceptance of a new sibling. Bright acrylic spreads capturing the colorful construction vehicles are certain to lure toddlers.

Kirkus Reviews

As his sandbox toy swells to full size, a young lad announces that he's going to don a hard hat and "digger-man boots," then move rocks and mud to create a "digger park" where he can play with his little brother. That's only for starters, though, because "I will always have a lot of work to do with my digger." Reflecting this budding construction worker's enthusiasm, the yellow behemoth practically glows against background expanses of bright green grass and rich brown dirt in the simple illustrations. Truck and machinery fans will dig this—and the closing scene, in which the narrator is seen kindling a like enthusiasm in the next generation by sharing a book and toy with his toddler sib, may inspire young readers to go and do likewise. (Picture book. 5-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

"My brother is too little, so he doesn't know…" confides the narrator of this heavy machinery fantasy, "…but soon I'm going to buy a huge digger." In fact, the boy has the whole thing figured out—from the appropriate outfit ("I'll wear a hard hat and heavy digger-man boots," he says, imagining himself perched in the digger's giant scoop) to making hay while the sun shines ("I will work while my brother sleeps"). Best of all, "I will push mud": he and the digger get down and dirty in a big muddy hole in a scene that allows Zimmerman and Clemesha (coauthors of <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Trashy Town) to construct a characteristic spread of bold shapes in bright colors, then splendiferously splatter it with chocolate-brown acrylic paint. The book's most distinctive note, however, lies in having the narrator employ his construction dream world as a means of connecting with his sibling, rather than escaping from him. "Maybe I can give my brother a ride on the digger," he thinks, first envisioning the baby on board the digger in a car seat (wearing a hard hat, of course); by book's end, he's planning to usher the younger brother into the digger-man fold. Ages 2-5. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-A nameless boy in hard hat and overalls shows just how he will use his huge yellow digger to do all his necessary work, scooping, pushing, and digging. His baby sibling, he tells readers, is too little to participate in all of these tasks, but "As soon as my brother gets bigger, I will teach him." Full spreads show the boy driving, with baby in the backseat; digging a big hole for a pond; and building a playground. Details are perfect, down to the brothers' special bond at the end of the day, where readers see yellow caution tape and orange cones near the bathtub. Another lively, sure-to-please winner from the creators of Trashy Town (HarperCollins, 1999).-Andrea Tarr, Corona Public Library, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.