About the Holiday

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of Week of the Young Child, an annual initiative hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children to celebrate learning, young children, their families, and their teachers. Daily themes focus on ways that children learn. These included Music Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Work Together Wednesday, Artsy Thursday, and Family Friday, in which people are encouraged to share their family stories. To get more information on this week-long celebration of kids and discover activities to make each day of the week fun, visit the NAEYC website.

Thanks to Lerner Books for sending me a copy of Let’s Go on a Digger, Let’s Go on a Plane, and Let’s Go on a Train for review consideration. All opinions on the books are my own.

Let’s Go! Series

Each of the books in this upbeat series for youngest readers, which also includes Let’s Go on a Rocket, Let’s Go on a Ferry, and Let’s Go on a Tractor introduces kids to some of the methods of transportation they love to see in the outside world and that spark their imaginations. Combining vocabulary that teaches terms associated with each vehicle, realistic visuals, and a story that shows the vehicle in motion, these books are well-rounded and sweet ways to satisfy any child’s love of transportation. Also inherent in each book are depictions of friendship, teamwork, and adventure. Readers will also like recognizing familiar faces, as the same six kids take part in each book. So let’s get going!

Let’s Go on a Digger

Written by Rosalyn Albert | Illustrated by Natalia Moore

What little one wouldn’t love to climb into a huge machine and dig in the mud? With this bright and cheery board book, kids take over a construction site. From the cab of the digger, a little girl says, “I’ll make a mountain with the mud / All piled in a heap. / I’ll dig a swimming pool-sized hole: / It will be extra deep.” She tells readers that she uses the joysticks to move the boom and shovel.

Then, when the bucket is all full of dirt, she pushes the “drive rods forward / To make the treads move straight.” While two other young workers dig with a shovel and remove dirt with a wheelbarrow, the girl drives the digger to a dump truck, where she lifts the bucket and pours the dirt into the back of the truck. “‘Hooray!’” she exclaims. She’s had such fun on her digger.

Rosalyn Albert’s engaging rhymes are just right for young readers excited about construction vehicles and how they work. Whether on a big scale or small, digging in the mud is a favorite kid activity, and readers will love learning the words for various parts of a digger while seeing it in action.

Natalia Moore’s vibrant yellow digger and enthusiastic kids in their hardhats and safety vests welcome readers to the construction site where a big project is underway. Kids will love Moore’s depictions of the digger scooping and dumping, the joysticks in the cab, and the caterpillar treads that help the big machine move over muddy ground.

Ages Preschool and up

Lerner Books, 2021 | ISBN 978-1913639112

You can find Let’s Go on a Digger at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

To support your local independent bookstore, order from

Bookshop | IndieBound

Let’s Go on a Plane

Written by Rosalyn Albert | Illustrated by Natalia Moore

At a busy airport, a pilot is almost ready to take off. A flight attendant is about to board, and a luggage handler is ready to load the passenger’s suitcases. From the huge windows of the terminal, two kids, eager for their flight, wave at the pilot and she waves back. As the plane takes off into the sky, the passengers think about how small everything on Earth will look from way up high.

“The engines roar, the wheels go up, / My seatbelt’s fastened tight. / I see the huge wings flying / Up, up, up into the night.” In the clear night sky, the kids see the moon closer than they ever have, and stars seem to be twinkling just for them.” When the pilot invites them into the cockpit, the kids are thrilled to watch her fly the plane. Soon, the plane is “gliding to the ground,” and the kids’ vacation is about to begin.

If your little one loves planes or is going to be taking a trip, Rosalyn Albert’s story of a night flight will fill them with the wonder and excitement of air travel. From a smooth ascent and landing to the phenomenon of seeing earth from afar to a visit to the cockpit to meet the pilot, Albert includes all the fun of an airplane trip.

Natalia Moore invites kids to the tarmac of a busy airport where planes wait their turn for takeoff while one plane begins to soar over the city. In the cockpit, kids can see the myriad buttons and dials, the radar screen, and the control stick the pilot uses to fly the plane. As the plane approaches its destination, kids may want to take a guess as to where it’s landing.

Ages Preschool and up

Lerner Books, 2021 | ISBN 978-1913639129

You can find Let’s Go on a Plane at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

To support your local independent bookstore, order from

Bookshop | IndieBound

Let’s Go on a Train

Written by Rosalyn Albert | Illustrated by Natalia Moore

On Platform 2 of the train station, two kids wait to board their train. The driver even lets them “help to stoke the fire” by shoveling coal into the furnace. As the train takes off down the tracks, the kids pass fields of sheep, travel “in and out of tunnels, / Over mountains high and green, / Through towns with people waving— / It’s such a pleasant scene.” The inspector checks their tickets, and they get tea from the trolley when it comes by. As they watch out the window, the kids tap their feet to the “click-clack” rhythm of the train. At last, “The station is in sight. / It’s been such an adventure— / I’ll have sweet dreams tonight.”

From standing on the platform as the powerful train pulls into the station to watching the sights speed by through the windows, Rosalyn Albert’s story of train travel is a thrill. She even includes that favorite response to seeing a train pass by—waving at the passengers. In addition to the sights, Albert also includes the distinctive sounds of train travel, from the whistle to the rhythmic “click-clack” of the wheels. Ending with a nighttime arrival scene, Let’s Go on a Train would make a sweet bedtime read for little train lovers.

Little ones will love Natalia Moore’s big green train and especially getting to see inside where knobs, dials, wheels, and piping control the furnace and the steam that powers the engine. On their long trip the kids see countryside, mountains, and rivers, and they get to partake of a favorite train-trip treat: getting a snack from the trolley or food car. Led by the glow of the lantern out front, the train pulls into the station under a full moon as the little passengers snooze.

Ages Preschool and up

Lerner Books, 2021 | ISBN 978-1913639105

You can find Let’s Go on a Train at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

To support your local independent bookstore, order from

Bookshop | IndieBound

Week of the Young Child Activity

  Digger, Plane, and Train Coloring Pages

Grab your crayons or pencils and enjoy these coloring pages of your favorite vehicles

Digger Coloring Page | Plane Coloring Page | Train Coloring Page

Picture Book Review