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Diggersaurs

Michael Whaite
Penguin Random House
Age 0-5

Have you ever looked at diggers and cranes and imagined they look like dinosaurs? Well this book does just that, tapping into two popular themes with young children and blending them together to create an amazing set of creatures – DIGGERSAURS! Bold illustrations, a rhyming text and an imaginative idea make this a great story for sharing again and again.

 

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Share the story

Watch a trailer

Read aloud
Have fun with reading this story aloud dramatically, including the sound effects. There is lots to look at in the illustrations and children may well want to talk about some of the diggersaurs.

Join in
If you read this story often, children will remember the words and be able to join in as you read. They will enjoy the sound effects and may like making them with their voices or improvised instruments. The end papers are fun for this too, you could take turns saying the sounds.

Tell the story
After hearing the story a few times, children will get to know it well. Encourage them tell it to you in their own words, with some words or phrases from the story, using the pictures to help them.

Talk about the story

  • Talk about the names for the different diggersaurs, lots of them have names that are about the job they do. Perhaps you could make up more together.

  • Which is your child’s favourite diggersaur?

  • Spot the details in the illustrations and talk about them, for example what the little figures are doing, the dinosaur fossil, how the ‘breakasaurus’ creates cracks in the earth.

Watch the story read aloud 


Michael Whaite, the creator of Diggersaurs talks about his inspiration for the book and how he hopes young readers will respond:
‘Diggersaurs have always existed in my world. I grew up on a farm so I was surrounded by tractors and diggers. I was always comparing them to dinosaurs - they’re large, loud, smelly and they make the earth move. My father and I nicknamed them Diggersaurs and I always intended to draw what I saw and share our quirky way of looking at construction machinery.’

‘I hope children will enjoy meeting the Diggersaurs and counting them as they read through the book. I also hope I can inspire young people to engage their imaginations with the world around them. Joining in with the sound effects can be fun too - TOOT TOOT!!’


'Diggersaurs is currently one of Casper’s favourite books - combining dinosaurs with diggers was definitely a winning combination!
Casper enjoys pretending that his toys have turned into Diggersaurs and gives them all names after the sounds they make - his favourite is KERLUNK(ASAURUS)!

On the way to nursery Casper is often looking out for where the next Diggersaur may be hiding. He likes to make the noises and make me guess which Diggersaur he is - so I am fast being able to distinguish my CHOMPS from my NOM-NOMS!”

Casper loves reading but he gets particularly excited when we can bring books to life for him. Lovemybooks provides some great inspiration for how to achieve this.'

 

Things to make and do

Go for a walk
See if you can spot any ‘diggersaurs’ (diggers and cranes) and talk about what they are doing. What might they be called?

Let’s pretend…
Children could pretend to be a diggersaur: scooping, honking, lifting

Playing with toy diggers
If you have toy diggers children could put stickers on them for eyes and make up names for them. If you have access to sand or earth they could play with their ‘diggersaurs’ there.

Drawing
Over three’s could draw a diggersaur, perhaps design a different one. What will its name be?

Find out more

Find out more about Michael Whaite here.