Push! Dig! Scoop! by Rhonda Gowler Greene and Daniel Kirk (Bloomsbury Publishing)

I was a little surprised when, one evening, it was a "Quick Book" late bedtime for Charlotte and she picked this one out of the bookshelves...
Parents will probably know "Quick Book Night" quite well. Usually they're school nights, usually your little ones have stayed up too late and there's no way you're going to read a chapter of Harry Potter to them - so you resort back to the tried and tested mainstay of picture books.

On all levels, this is a book that I expected Charlotte to call "Babyish" but once again the lass surpriseth me, and the book did too.

"Push! Dig! Scoop!" taps into two things that thrill little ones beyond all measure. The first - hulking great big bits of machinery you'd usually find dotted around building sites. Diggers, scoopers, road rollers - you name it and there's a never ending fascination with huge machinery like this when you're a certain age (what am I talking about, I still love watching building work going on even as a cynical 48 year old!)

The other thing this book uses beautifully is rhyming repetition.

It's a busy day on the building site, and it's time to count up all the machines. A bulldozer and its one little dozer makes short work of pushing earth around. Then there's the big scoop, and its two little helpers - and then three earth movers come along to help with the task at hand. This wonderful little counting book rhymes pitch-perfectly as the big machines (and their utterly ADORABLE little offspring) all work really hard.

But soon it's time for bed, and a lilting lullaby! Night night diggers, night night road rollers, night night dumper trucks!

By the end of the book, Charlotte was practically bouncing in her seat (not the desired 'relaxing' effect I wanted, admittedly but hey, you have to love this book's energy - it's definitely catching!) What a brilliant little rhyming counting book. If your little ones love all things digger-shaped, they're going to adore this to bits!

Charlotte's favourite bit: The earth smoothers, who move in to smooth down the stony ground.

Daddy's favourite bit: Such a brilliant bouncing rhyme-along counting book, it's impossible not to love it! Sheer brilliance!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Bloomsbury Publishing)

"Push! Dig! Scoop!"

Written by Rhonda Gowler Greene

Illustrated by Daniel Kirk

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing

Publication date; 25th October 2016