I knew that Sebastien Braun‘s Digger and Tom! was going to be a massive hit from the second I saw the cover at the library. (Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, I guess?). It’s got brightly colored illustrations, construction vehicles, and exudes the kind of friendliness that is especially appealing to a toddler.

Unsurprisingly, Digger and Tom! was in regular rotation for months around the two-and-a-quarter age range, with no pause until I eventually snuck it back to the library.

As an initial matter, Digger and Tom! opens quickly to set up our main character, Digger, as someone we should care about.

The opening page gets the reader invested in Digger right away with an ingenious 5 words: “This is Digger. Hello, Digger!” By having the reader excitedly say hello to Digger, we’ve set him up as a friendly vehicle worth knowing. The first page also sets up the onomatopoeia and construction-related action words that run throughout the story, creating a pattern to expect. As with refrains, recognizable patterns are toddler gold.

The very next page tells us what Digger’s problem is going to be: he wants to help out at the construction site, but he makes lots of mistakes.

The illustrations and language are simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. As is Digger’s underlying problem. So when we get to the main conflict in the story — the construction vehicles are all trying to remove a rock that is stuck in the ground — we know exactly what Digger has to overcome and we are invested in his doing so.

And as the vehicles each try to remove the rock, we get more of our onomatopoeia and construction-related action words with each attempt. S loved these words, none more so than “Heave!”

Thinking that S probably would not know what “heave” meant, I mimicked heaving something with S’s foot while reading “Heave! Heave!” out loud. S thought this was HYSTERICAL, and consistently repeated the refrain. But even without this unexpected love of that one particular page, the story stands on its own with its friendly focus on perseverance and the evergreen toddler hook of a colorful construction site.

Digger and Tom! By the Numbers

Pages: 26 pages of what I would consider the “main” book

Word Count: 340

Words Per Illustration: 12.14

Words Per Sentence: 4.65 if onomatopoeia is included, 6.8 if not