THE DIGGER AND THE FLOWER by Joseph Kuefler

THE BOOK: 

Kuefler, Joseph. The Digger and the Flower. New York: HarperCollins, 2018. Print.

Big trucks Crane, Dozer and Digger are busy in the city, building bridges, tall buildings, and roads. When break time comes, curious and dutiful Digger makes a discovery: a small blue flower growing out of the debris. Engrossed with the flower, Digger waters it, shields it from the wind, and sings to it at night. For a bit, Digger keeps the flower safe from the other trucks, but soon there is no other space to build, and the determined (and seemingly sinister) Dozer mows it down. Kuefler adeptly illustrates Digger's sadness with dark smoke clouds looming around him and a single gray filled-with-soot tear. After the smoke disappears, Digger finds the flower's seeds and transports them out of the city, setting out to make things right. The ending is a new beginning for Digger, shown in a new setting with added colors on the illustration palette. The broad square trim size and orientation (and the predominantly yellow, black and gray palette) suit the expansive, imposing urban feel of the story, with brightly colored work trucks standing out amidst the stark cold skyline. Kuefler's use of scale (Digger is the grandest in the spread in which he finds the flower) and white space combine to endear readers to Digger, and sympathize with his cause.

Digger is a character who takes a risk, setting himself apart from his peers to do a good thing. Digger isn't afraid to be himself, and to care about something tiny and fragile in his rough and tumble world of tearing up and tearing down. The flower is a character, too--changing Digger and leading him to the altered, warmer, for-the-better human-like machine he becomes. But Digger's caring for the flower isn't all about nurturing the bloom. Readers will realize that the flower gave Digger the permission and the reason to step out of the environment he very clearly did not belong in anymore.

Before I end this post, I must mention two things:
1.) I appreciated the textures Kuefler uses for the ground/earth -- similar to texture rubbing with crayons, and so real I wanted to move my hand over them.
2.) The double page spread in which the machines take a break at the whistle is the first place that Digger goes a different way and begins his story.

I will be sharing this book with readers in my library as spring approaches. I cannot wait to see what they see when I do. What will they learn from Digger? They will tell me.

*Update: I read this book to 3rd graders the day after I wrote this post. They noticed how much work the trucks had done as the story moved forward. "Lots of progress!" Also, they noticed at the end just how far the flowers had reached! See the final spread!

Here are two other picture books by Joseph Kuefler that I recommend as well:

THE SHOES:

Today I am wearing my comfy white Converse sneakers! I don't wear these often, but when I do, I appreciate them!