The New Yellow Digger

The back cover blurb invites 'transport-mad toddlers and young children' to explore the workings of a New Yellow Digger in this lift-the-flaps, pull-the-tabs and turn-the-wheels book. So, you can unload the digger from the lorry, check out the controls, the backhoe, the hydraulic lift and the front bucket. The book is, wisely, strongly engineered and the artwork agreeable and uncomplicated. The essence of pop-up texts usually involves concealment, transformation, wit and surprise, however, and Yellow Diggers don't much lend themselves to those qualities. Once even transport-mad toddlers have gone through the text lifting the hood, and so on, how many times will they return to play with this book? Especially if they have the chance to push a working toy digger around the carpet or down a concrete path. And which - book or toy - offers the more inventive fun?