Diggers, Dozers & Dumpers
Ole Könnecke
Gecko Press

Translated from the original German by Melody Shaw, this contains fourteen mini stories each of which features a different construction vehicle. Every story but one unfolds over one spread and all show realistic pictures of the vehicles and their amusingly portrayed animal drivers.. The vehicles include a dumper truck driven by Roberta Elephant, a telescopic crane that concert pianist Cordula Cow uses to carry her piano to give a free concert in the pasture to her ‘less successful sisters’. I think my favourite and probably that of young children, is J.J. Wolf’s mini-digger story. Having dug a small hole in the sheep paddock he’s surprised to find that the following morning some sheep have fallen in. The cunning guy invites the sheep to dinner at his house. Err …

The cement mixer story spread is a recipe for pancakes that requires more than two thousand litres of milk, s two thousand plus tons of flour and over thirty two thousand eggs and there’s a tale of grass mowing one-upmanship entitled ‘combine harvester’.

Each tale has additional information in italics about how the vehicle is used. The countless young vehicle loving children will probably most enjoy seeing the machinery whereas adult sharers will have a good giggle over the animals’ actions.

A fun amalgam of story and information; it’s great to see several of the machines have female operators.