Tuesday, September 01, 2009


THE LITTLE YELLOW DIGGER AND THE BONES
Betty & Alan Gilderdale
Scholastic - $18.99

This is the fifth title, (and the author tells me the last), in this enormously successful series of children’s picture books by husband and wife team Betty and Alan Gilderdale.
The series started in 1992 with the The Little yellow digger . (Ashton Scholastic) 1992. Then followed The Little yellow digger at the zoo. (Scholastic), 1998 The Little yellow digger saves the whale,(Scholastic) 2001, The Little yellow digger goes to school, (Scholastic) 2005.

New Zealand sales to date exceed 350,000 copies which is a great tribute to their enormous popularity with young children and those who read to them.

It started to rain on the Monday,
It rained on the Tuesday as well,
it bucketed down on the Wednesday,
And rivers started to swell.
There was thunder and lightning on Thursday,
Bridges and roads swept away.
By Friday the hillsides had crumbled,
And traffic was held up all day.
Where bushes and boulders had tumbled,
Diggers were needed to clear them away.

The perfect scenario of course for the little yellow digger but this time he uncovers something very unusual buried in the hillside. Think diggers and dinosaurs!

Another winner from the Gilderdales. The many Little Yellow Digger fans will be hoping they can be persuaded to change their minds about it being the final in the series.

About the author:
Betty Gilderdale has made a considerable and important contribution to New Zealand's children's literature through her lecturing, reviewing, scholarly writing, and in her books for children. Born and educated in London, Betty moved with her family to New Zealand in 1967. Her career has included teaching at primary and secondary schools, at the North Shore Teachers' College and Auckland College of Education, and currently for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland.
This bio information from the excellent Storylines website. For more link here.

About the illustrator:
Born in York in England, Alan Gilderdale received his art training at Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London.
Before becoming a full-time illustrator, painter and printmaker, Alan worked as an art lecturer in arts schools and teacher training colleges. He has displayed his art work at solo and group exhibitions in London, Toronto and Auckland, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art (UK). Alan received the Bledisloe Medal for Landscape in 1989.
Alan Gilderdale was already an experienced book illustrator before his wife Betty asked him to do the illustrations on her children's title The Little Yellow Digger -- the first of many books the husband and wife team have worked on together.

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