The second Grumpy Mole book was launched today: The Grumpy Mole gets a Digger. A happy crowd of supporters gathered at Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Ponsonby to mark the event.

The illustrator Minky Stapleton was guest of honour, along with nearly-three-years-old Carter Solly, whose grandfather John Evan Harris wrote the book.

“It was Carter who inspired this book,” said John. “A year ago he came to the launch of my first book, The Grumpy Mole, and was totally distracted by the toy diggers in the shop. That gave me the idea of writing a mole-gets-digger story.”

And as the picture shows, Carter is still mildly obsessed by diggers. He listened to his grandfather read the Digger story, but his main focus was on the toys.