Books About Vehicles - for ages 3/4 through perhaps 6/7 year olds
There are a lot of truck/train/plane/construction/car/boat books out there! The ones listed below are simply the ones my three boys and I love best of what we've read. We're always discovering new ones and I'll add them as we stumble across more. My favorites are starred.
Virginia Lee Burton
My boys (and my very girly daughters!) have loved these four vehicle-heavy classics. Beautiful stories, written exceptionally well and charmingly illustrated....frequently giving gentle lessons about how the times have changed & always underscoring simple good values. Burton's books could be too long for some three year olds, but by four years of age, I think most little ones will be engaged by these stories.
Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel **The Little House **
Katy and The Big Snow
Maybelle, the Cable Car
Patricia Hubbell
I like her first vehicle book best (the one about trucks). Her books are heavy on both onomatopoeia and on unique illustrations. While the volumes on trains, boats & airplanes are not perhaps as endlessly requested for repeated readings, they teach quite a bit about the types and parts of their respective vehicles.
Trucks:Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! **
Trains: Steaming! Pulling! Huffing!
Boats: Speeding! Sailing! Cruising!
Airplanes: Soaring! Turning! Diving!
Sally Sutton
Nice rhyming texts. Farmer John's Tractor is her best, in my opinion, with beautiful illustrations, an engaging re-readable plot and a catchy little phrase that echoes throughout the book. Her other three are written and illustrated differently, but are also enjoyed by my three truck-loving boys.
Farmer John's Tractor **
RoadworkConstruction
Demolition
William Bee
These are playful little books with humor and surprises that may even appeal to the adult reading them. The first two are fun for adults who enjoy making up various silly voices/accents while reading aloud.
And The Cars Go....
And The Train Goes....
Digger Dog (laugh out loud ending)
Great Vehicular Read-Alouds by Various Authors
20 Big Trucks in the Middle of the Street (Mark Lee)
Interesting illustrations drawn from every possible perspective of the traffic jam.
Cars Galore (Stein)
The Firehouse Light (Nolan) True story featuring a visual history of firetrucks
Scuffy the Tugboat (Gertrude Crampton) A Little Golden Book & a classic! Good lesson on humility.
The Seven Little Postmen (Margaret Wise Brown) ** all sorts of vehicles in this "old school" book!
The Mighty Street Sweeper (Patrick Moore)
The kids think it's quite funny when we read the other vehicles' text in big
booming voices, and the street sweeper's in a calmer, prim voice.
Junkyard (Austin) Eco-friendly :)
Go! (Carin Berger) Also very green.
Big Mean Mike (Michelle Knudson) Cool cars, monster trucks and an
anti-bullying lesson on resisting peer pressure
The Little Engine That Could (Piper) The classic thing-that-goes book.
Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse (Torben Kuhlmann) A vague history of aviation, a cute mouse and beautiful illustrations of planes, trains and boats.
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| From Margaret Wise Brown's Seven Little Postmen |
Series
As a rule, I don't like series books. Usually I feel that the first book in a series is good, but the rest seem like mediocre attempts to squeeze more money out of an idea that has had its day. So I list here a few series in which I have enjoyed just the first book, while my boys liked perhaps one or more of the follow-up titles.
Little Blue Truck (Alice Schertle) ** I love this book so much, I wish I could like the sequels!
Trucks Go (Steve Light) Beloved even by my 1 year old - a perfect "first truck" book
Otis (Loren Long) Could be too long for a 3 year old, depending on the child
I Stink!(Kate McMullan) I may just be too girly to properly appreciate this book. My boys think it's hilarious.
3 Little Rigs; Hansel & Diesel; The Ugly Truckling (all by David Gordon) These "truck fairy tales" seem a little lame to me, but my husband thinks they're fabulous and the boys like the masculine spin on the fairy tales.)
"Non-Story" Vehicle Books
Usborne Big Books of Big [Insert the Name of a Vehicle] nonfiction series about big trucks
Usborne 1000 Things that Go (my boys have sat quietly and looked through this nonfiction, plotless book every single day for over a year)
Alpha, Beta, Charlie An alphabet book that also teaches the military alphabet
The Airplane Alphabet Book An alphabet book that teaches detailed info about different planes
Alphabeep A simple "cars and trucks" alphabet book that does utilize a loose plot
