Sam and Dave Dig a Hole: The trailer

Transcript

There is a book trailer for Sam and Dave Dig a Hole. Yeah, first I think I should stress that my relationships with the editors are wonderful, and then I would also acknowledge that there is a book trailer for a book called Sam and Dave Dig a Hole in which Jon Klassen does throw dirt all over me.

That was not a stunt double for that. No special effects. That’s something that actually happened, and I’m still not over it.

The trailer for Sam and Dave Dig a Hole has a Burl Ives song behind it, and I found that song, but Jon and I both love Burl Ives. It’s one of the kind of early things that cemented our friendship. Jon’s one of my best friends, and we found out very early on we both love Frog and Toad, and we both love Burl Ives, and we’ll trade sort of like rare Burl Ives songs.

That’s “The Doughnut Song.” It’s not a tremendously rare one, but it was on a Burl Ives album I grew up with and seemed like a good one for that, and we knew – we knew from the start we wanted to have Burl Ives on that trailer. It was just a matter of finding the right Burl Ives song.

In this video promotion for the book, Jon Klassen really does throw dirt all over Barnett, to the tune of Burl Ives’ “The Donut Song.”

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Mac Barnett

Children’s Author

Mac Barnett is the bestselling author of more than 60 books for children, including Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, both illustrated by Jon Klassen, and both winners of a Caldecott Honor and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award. He loves his work because, he says, kids are “the sincerest appreciators of stories, a uniquely receptive and honest audience.” Mac was named the 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress.