The Dumpster Diver (Hardcover)

~ (Author), David Roberts (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: The Grouch

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2—This urban trash-to-treasure tale will resonate with city dwellers and send suburbanites and kids in rural areas searching for similar adventures. A boy waits at his bedroom window for his adult neighbor Steve, a.k.a. "the dumpster diver," to set things in motion. Five taps come on the boy's window and two other young residents of the building also receive the signal to report to duty. The children are "Hose Handler #1," "Hose Handler #2," and "The Fauceteer." Armies of insects are dislodged when Steve dives into the back-alley Dumpster and hauls out seemingly worthless junk, but worth is in the eyes of the beholder, and the three assistants share his reverence for discarded objects. Broken skis, blenders, and lamps can all be reincarnated, and half the fun is finding a tenant who will appreciate some newly fashioned object. Steve's enthusiasm and creativity are so infectious that neither he nor his helpers are deterred by the building grouch, who thinks that the man should get a real job. The text aptly appears on torn scraps of paper or, in the case of the final words, a Band-Aid that Steve will need, having incurred a "work related" injury and convalescing in a homemade wheelchair! With his unmatched gloves and flippers, goggles, and hooded yellow slicker, Steve is a lovable comic figure. Roberts portrays him with a playful elasticity that perfectly matches Wong's playful story.—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Riffling through rubbish isn't an activity that most grown-ups wish to encourage. But seasoned writer Wong cleverly spins the topic for children, leaving the actual diving to a grown-up who is clearly known to everyone in the featured apartment complex: "Our neighbor Steve the Electrician dives for buried treasure right smack here in our backstreet alley." The book's African American narrator describes how Steve enlists a "Diving Team" of children to dream up wild ways to reuse his finds, such as a blender lava lamp or a zany contraption held together by "thirty-two screws and a roll of duct tape." Essential to the book's charm are Wong's dry humor (rule number one of garbage immersion: "KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT") and Roberts' screwball watercolors, which capture the whimsy of the creations, the gross-out fun (cockroaches abound), and the breathless energy of all involved. The topsy-turvy artwork keeps things light, but adults will find plenty to talk about with children, from the value of creative conservation to safe modeling of the depicted activities (which include gathering junk from apartment tenants who may or may not be strangers). This will be popular anytime, but especially around Earth Day, when it will inject new possibility into enjoyment to reduce and recycle. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (February 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763623806
• ISBN-13: 978-0763623807
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #415,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little boys in particular should enjoy this colorful little adventure, May 26, 2007

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Inspired by Kerry Wade, an artist who takes old skis and turns them into chairs, Janet S. Wong crafted this colorful (thanks to illustrator David Roberts) story about Steve the electrician, also known as The Dumpster Diver. Every month, Steven dons his special dumpster diving suit, dives right in to the big trash bin, and counts on three young friends to assist him: one turns on the faucet, another keeps the hose from getting tangled up, and the other aims the nozzle at all of the nasty bugs and spiders that evacuate the dumpster in the wake of Steve's invasion - and then at Steve once he emerges from the dumpster. They turn "junk" into all kinds of neat toys, gizmos, and furniture.

Lest you think otherwise, the book doesn't really encourage young children to follow in Steve's dumpster-diving footsteps. In fact, Steve ends up sustaining an injury from this little hobby of his. The real point of the story, I believe, is to pass along the idea that you can have fun by turning materials you might normally throw away or just have lying around the house somewhere into useful, fun things. In other words, one man's trash can be another man's treasure.

This is a fairly large and colorful little book that young children should really enjoy - probably little boys more than little girls. Parents would do well to talk to their children about the story, though, not only because it could lead to some fun adventures that the parents can share with the child but also because you really don't want to come home from a hard day's work to find little Johnny sitting there surrounded by a bunch of broken toys and other junk he's collected from the neighbors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Daughter's Favorite Book Ever, April 7, 2008

By	Rebecca Draben - See all my reviews

My daughter loved this book. She enjoyed how Steve turns trash into treasure. She laughed out loud at his silly creations. I like the fact that the book promotes recycling.

Her fifth birthday is coming up and I am have been asked to read her favorite book to her class at school for her birthday. I asked my daughter what her favorite book is and she picked The Dumpster Diver. Interestingly, we don't own this book, but we checked it out from the library about a year ago. She still remembers this book as her favorite!