The Little Yellow Digger

When digging out a drain, the little yellow digger gets stuck in the mud. So they bring in a bigger digger...

Betty Gilderdale author, critic and a founder member of the New Zealand Children’s Literature Association wrote The Little Yellow Digger after a similar situation occurred at her daughter’s home.

The illustrator of this book, husband Alan Gilderdale, was an art lecturer, artist and printmaker. This favourite New Zealand picture book has become a classic.

About the Author

Betty Gilderdale is a scholar, educator, and an expert on New Zealand children’s literature. She has worked as a lecturer, and her pioneering study, A Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction (1982), won the PEN Award for best first book of prose. She has written numerous research papers, reviews of children’s books, as well as entries in reference publications. Gilderdale’s major biography, The Seven Lives of Lady Barker, was published in 1996. The Betty Gilderdale Award has been named in her honour.