Ben's Big Dig

Ellie Contursi is a children’s librarian at the London Public Library.

Ben goes to his grandma’s house for an overnight stay. When he
arrives, Grandma is baking lots of pies. Ben waves goodbye to his mother
and goes up to his room. When it’s time for bed, he makes his way
upstairs. Along the way, Ben notices some interesting photos. In his
room, he finds even more—neat pictures of miners, wearing their
special miner hats. An idea formulates and, instead of going to bed, Ben
decides to go on a dig! He sneaks down to the pie-filled kitchen to pack
a snack. Back in his room, he finds a miner’s hat and shovel. He goes
outside and begins to dig an amazing underground tunnel, which takes him
past such interesting items as dinosaur bones, space capsules, and more.
When the tunnel springs a leak, his adventure turns wet. The undersea
world enters the tunnel, and eventually water pressure catapults Ben
back through and out of his tunnel. Grandma ends up plugging the gushing
geyser with her pies!

Ben’s Big Dig is an entertaining wordless picture book. The
illustrator has used a unique combination of coloured-pencil drawings to
give the story a comic-book flavour and actual photographs to pique
interest. Children can scan the pages and still miss fascinating
details. This one calls for looking and more looking. Lots of fun.
Recommended.