If You Like The Llama, Llama Series, You'll Love Little Excavator

Beloved children’s author Anna Dewdney was best known for her Llama, Llama series, in which a nervous little llama is very attached to his mama. The rhyming makes the tales fun to read — and each book always has a lesson for our own little llamas. Dewdney’s trademark rhyming and joy rings through one of her last books, Little Excavator.

“Here come the BIG RIGS

rolling down the street. Thumpa-thumpa bumpa-bumpa BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”

In Little Excavator, a resilient little excavator wonders why he can’t do all the jobs the larger trucks do.

He wanders around the construction site, seeing how useful all the other trucks are. In the process, we learn what the larger trucks are, and the sounds they make.

Between the bright cast of trucks and fun sounds they make, there is much for any vehicle-loving kid to love here. But the book has a great message too.

As Little Excavator moves through the construction site and sees all the tasks he’s not a perfect fit for, he eventually lands on one made just for him. He finds out that there is a place for everyone, as he stumbles upon a job that only he can do — the other trucks are way too large to be of any help. In Little Excavator, your child will learn that there is a place for everyone — and everyone is important no matter how big or small.

“You may be small, Little E,

but you will grow… You’re a mighty little excavator… GO GO GO!”

“When we read with a child, we are doing so much more than teaching him to read or instilling in her a love of language,” Anna Dewdney once said. “By reading with a child, we are teaching that child to be human. When we open a book, and share our voice and imagination with a child, that child learns to see the world through someone else’s eyes.”

In September 2016, Dewdney died after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. Her last request? In lieu of a funeral service, she asked that her family and friends read to a child. This is how important reading to children was to the author, and precisely the reason Little Excavator, one of her last books, encompasses a feeling of love and fun that is so hard to capture. She was a loving mother and knew the time we spend with our kids is precious. Dewdney’s books are a fun experience — not just a story. She simply loved creating books for kids, and you feel that love every time you open one of her books.

You don’t just give a child a story when you open up a book — you give them the gift of time…with you. And with Little Excavator, you also give them an important lesson about just how special each one of us really is.

Penguin Random House is the international home to nearly 250 editorially and creatively independent publishing imprints. Together, our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire, and to connect them with readers everywhere.