Dog on a Digger

In this debut, British artist Prendergast’s pencil drawings don’t jump out at viewers; they’re shaded in a midrange of grays with bolder yellow tints. Yet her wordless story rewards close inspection. A shorthaired dog lives in a trailer with its owner on a construction site. The first panels establish intimacy between the two as the dog leaps into the owner’s bed to wake him. The owner, who operates a digger, climbs into the cabin, and the dog hops up next to him. After a morning’s work, the site’s canteen worker introduces her small pup to the operator and his dog. While the humans talk, the pup runs off, and the operator’s dog soon alerts them to trouble: the pup is trapped out of the humans’ reach. The dog gives the operator the idea of using the digger to rescue the terrified pup, and dramatic spreads follow the successful rescue. The circumstances are just plausible enough to be intriguing, and Prendergast adds further realism to her story by portraying the operator and his dog with naturalistic, expressive detail. The story, with its satisfying, almost documentary feel, might become a bedtime favorite. Ages 4–6. [em](May) [/em]