In order to replace our ailing sewer line and crumbling driveway, we had to dig up the entire front yard. My husband rented an excavator for much of the dirty work. One of my favorite pictures is of my son sitting on his dad’s lap in the cab of the excavator sporting a grin a mile wide.
When the machine wasn’t in use, I’d see neighborhood parents with their preschoolers inspecting the machine. Sometimes dads would look around to make sure we weren’t watching and plunk their kids in the bucket for a quick picture.
Later, when the mixer showed up to pour the driveway and sidewalks, even more dads and toddlers came out to watch. Our house was the neighborhood magnet for several days. Young and old stood on the sidewalk to witness the clumpy, wet sludge pour into the forms. Despite the cold weather, my son stood with rapt attention until I made him come inside for lunch.
Satisfy your curiosity with a petting zoo of construction trucks to align with the summer reading theme of Dig Into Reading. Join the Lake Hills Library staff and the crew from Rushforth for a special program called Diggers, Dump Trucks and Dozers. It will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 27 in the Lake Hills Library open-air parking lot, weather permitting.
Kids can get up close to the trucks and construction workers will be available to answer questions. There will be free KCLS construction hats while supplies last. Don’t be shy if you have a particular fondness for construction trucks. It’s for kids of all ages.
The Lake Hills Library is located at 15590 Lake Hills Blvd.
Here’s a list of favorite truck books, old and new:
Trucks, by Byron Barton (Crowell, 1986)
Smash! Crash!, by Jon Scieszka (Simon and Schuster, 2008)
Alphabet Trucks, by Samantha Vamos (Charlesbridge, 2013)
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton (Houghton Mifflin, 1939)
I’m Dirty, by Kate and Jim McMullan (Joanna Cotler Books, 2006)
Truck, by Donald Crews (Greenwillow Books, 1980)
Dinotrux, by Chris Gall (Little, Brown 2009)
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, by Sherri Duskey Rinker (Chronicle, 2011)
Construction Kitties, by Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges (Henry Holt, 2013)
B Is For Bulldozer: A Construction ABC, by June Sobel (Harcourt, 2003)
Darcy Brixey is the teen services librarian at the Bellevue Library. She’d like to tell you she loves to read, but it’s an expectation of the job.
