  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 05/01/2017 This book sweetly transfers every small child’s yearning to play with the big kids to a construction site, where Little Excavator tries his best to work among the big rigs. Winsomely kidlike “Little E” is eager to show he can dig and fill holes, but mostly he gets in the way of the huge trucks as he topples over or accidentally gets scooped up. The illustrations are cheerful and appealingly detailed, and Dewdney fills the site with hardworking favorites: a bulldozer, a loader, a dump truck, a backhoe, and a crane. But the sound effects are what truly stand out. Simple, rhyming text is punctuated with wonderful machinelike noises: “Pusha-pusha smusha-smusha SMASH SMASH SMASH!” The story has a satisfying arc, with Little E trying and failing, and then getting pushed aside and told he’s too little, until there is a job that only he, being small, can do. Dewdney, the author of the Llama Llama series, passed away in 2016, but has left a marvelous legacy, including this latest charmer. - Copyright 2017 Booklist. School Library Journal - 06/01/2017 PreS-K—Little E, a baby excavator, busily tries to help the big rigs as they work to build a park, but he is either too small for the task or in the way. It's only when the construction is nearly done that there's a job that none of the mighty machines can get to, and it's Little E's turn to shine. The cheerful, anthropomorphized machines are illustrated in Dewdney's signature, child-friendly style, and there is onomatopoeia galore as each truck is introduced and gets to work. Fans of Dewdney's "Llama Llama" books will find the rhythm of the text and the positive tone familiar. VERDICT A fun first purchase for all preschool collections.—Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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