Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia

Big, noisy vehicles are the stuff that most toddlers dreams are made of and there’s a whole gang of them in this picture book by Emma Garcia: Tip Tip Dig Dig, published by Boxer Books.

Faced with a huge mess of mud, rubble and wood a team of diggers and trucks take on the challenge of what to do with it all. Brightly coloured vehicles with big eyes troop through the book showing us the different jobs they can do before the big reveal at the end.

The text is simple with the noisy actions repeated in big lettering for maximum impact. Little ones will quickly remember which vehicle does what and can join in with reading the story. With questions rather than statements and actions described in the present and past tense there are plenty of opportunities for developing children’s language and understanding.

This book lends itself to movement and making noise so when I read this book to my little boy I use my own actions to match those of the vehicles; moving my hand round in a circle on his tummy for the mixer mixing, gently tipping him backwards towards me when the tipper truck tips and carefully lifting his arm by his sleeve when the crane lifts the wood.  I started doing this when my little boy had just started to sit and look at books, as he got bigger he started to anticipate which action was coming next with small movements or giggles. It’s great to see how much even very young children can get out of being read to and any book can be paired with actions like this or funny voices that they will start to anticipate. Older children could copy big actions and even make some up themselves.

Brilliantly simple and perfectly pitched this book is sure to please any vehicle obsessed little ones.

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