Build, Dogs, Build

December 9, 2013
The hardworking canines from 2013’s Dig, Digs, Dig replace a dilapidated apartment building with a gleaming high-rise tower in this companion book. “The crane is in place./ The angle’s correct./ Get the ball swinging now./ Wreck, dogs, wreck!” writes Horvath before a page turn reveals a colossal “boom” as the wrecking ball does its thing. From subterranean pipeworks and a 10-inch concrete base to finishing touches (“The last thing to do/ is install the doorbell”), children get a ground-up tour of how a building comes together. Paint mishaps, a “fetch” break, and other canine antics keep the mood light amid all the hard work. Ages 4–8. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

December 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 2-The canine crew from Horvath's Dig, Dogs, Dig(HarperCollins, 2013) is needed again, this time on a demolition job, so foreman Duke and his enthusiastic pack head downtown. There's an old building there that has to come down to make way for new high-rise homes at Bark Avenue. Their wrecking ball crashes into the structure with a gigantic "BOOM." The yellow bulldozer clears "piles of rubble, and/bricks and concrete/without any trouble," while the red and blue dump truck hauls it all away. Working dogs deserve a treat, so they grab a quick snack at the "R-Coach," which features hot dogs, corn dogs, chili dogs, and the like. The work isn't finished yet; there are trenches to be built for pipes and drains, a foundation to pour, girders to weld, and cables to run. The afternoon break involves a good game of fetch before installing the finishing touches on the interior. All in all, the penthouse, with its terrace and pool, is perfect, and tomorrow the mutts are off to another job. Horvath's cartoonlike illustrations were created digitally, and the dogs are reminiscent of a beloved old Saturday-morning character, Augie Doggie. Youngsters who can't get enough books with pictures of heavy equipment will be attracted to this one.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2013
Those canines are at it again (Dig, Dogs, Dig, 2013), this time demolishing an old apartment building and constructing a new one in its stead. After meeting the crew on the endpapers, readers dive right into the project with the enthusiastic dogs, the rhythm and rhyme of the verses building momentum. The wrecking ball first does its job, then the crew clears the site and begins construction, each different task requiring a different type of truck--bulldozer, dump truck, crane, concrete mixer, forklift, pumper--though not all are named in the text. Great vocabulary will really test young builders' knowledge, though those not construction-savvy may need an adult to help them master the terms: rubble, barricades, tier, girders, welding, riveting, fixtures, terrace. Small details in Horvath's brightly colored digital illustrations will likely draw readers back for repeated looks: As in the dogs' first outing, a black cat lurks on every page, joining the crew on the rear endpapers. The energy reaches a crescendo when a truck full of balls crashes near the site--"fetch, dogs, fetch!"--giving readers yet another thing to look for in the pages that follow. While the construction detail does not reach the level of Sally Sutton's Roadwork (2008), this is a rollicking, energetic read that will pump up kids' enthusiasm for building. Order, grown-ups, order. (Picture book. 4-8)

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July 1, 2014
In this follow-up to Dig, Dog, Dig, foreman Duke and his all-canine crew return to build a Bark Avenue penthouse. But first it's "Wreck, dogs, wreck!" Some of the rhymes could have sturdier construction, but the cartoony digital illustrations (look for a curious black cat's cameo in every scene) are quite masterfully designed.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)