10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

Dog on a Digger The Tricky Incident

View All Editions

The selected edition of this book is not available to buy right now.
Add To Wishlist
Write A Review Read An Extract

LoveReading4Kids Says

LoveReading4Kids Says

Kate Prendergast’s new picture book is full of drama, tension, excitement and humour too, all of it told entirely through the pictures, no words are needed. From the moment he wakes up Dog is a boisterous, noisy presence, licking his owner awake and later joining him in the cab of his digger. Drama develops at lunchtime: while Dog’s owner is chatting to the young woman who runs the café, Dog notices her little terrier has disappeared. Dog tracks down the missing pet and with the help of his owner and the digger completes a daring rescuer. There’s a great deal for readers of all ages to enjoy and discuss, and the soft pencil illustrations are extraordinarily expressive.  ~ Andrea Reece

Dog On A Digger and how it came about by Kate Prendergast :  Dog on a Digger came about after a long period of observational drawing at a recycling site (where I was doing some office work). What intrigued me at first was the ramshackle variety of objects that came into the site, how they were sorted out, how some things were kept to decorate the site, whilst others were sold on. A bit like beachcombing or a jumble sale.  I hope this detail is reflected in some of the drawings.

As I continued drawing, the vehicles on the site, especially the digger, started to interest me more and more. The digger of awesome dinosaur-size scale, great to draw, with switches, lights, levers and wires, started to take on a character of its own. As I drew the digger I felt I needed to understand the mechanics of the digger arm better - what pushed and pulled to make the arm move and the digger jaws open, so I made a model out of cardboard, kebab sticks and masking tape! Loads of fun, plus it turned out to be useful as a maquette (model), particularly in getting perspective right. 

Having done lots of drawing of the site I wanted to use the information in a book, a story about the yard, incorporating my favourite things; the digger, the caravan, the snack wagon; and importantly the way that nature still exists alongside industrial sites. I saw foxes and an owl on this site, butterflies on the buddleia bush, hawks nesting somewhere around the Ikea car park, and the seagulls always there hoping for some tasty rubbish. I also wanted to do more with Dog from my first book Dog On A Train, and thought he could help his man, as farm dogs do, sitting on the tractor beside the farmer. I also wanted to develop his personality, to take part in the action – what that action was going to be I didn’t have an idea, but I knew there should be someone, in addition to dog and his man, to run the snack wagon and from there it was a short step to one of them getting in trouble and Dog having to sort it out…

LoveReading4Kids

Find This Book In

Suitable For:

About

Press Reviews

Author

You Might Also Like...

5+ readers

That's Mathematics

Tom Lehrer and 1 more

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

5+ readers

I'll See You in Ijebu

Bunmi Emenanjo

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

5+ readers

Rewild the World at Bedtime

Emily Hawkins

Hardback

In Stock

£13.49 £14.99