Tea & A Good Book Brewing- Installment 14, Truck Books for Young Boys
Got boys? Then this is the book review for you, especially if the boys in your life happen to be in the same age range as mine, which would be ages 2 and 4, and especially if they like trucks!!!
I think I know more about trucks than I ever did before in my life. Not that I could fix them or tell you anything about what's under the hood, oh, no, but identify them by sight while passing a construction site or barreling down the interstate? Yes, that's what I am talking about!
If you would like to explore some of the differences between boys and girls, just take a peek into our library bag! Elasa and Gavin both enjoy many of the same books, like Arthur, Poppleton, and Henry and Mudge, but for personal favorites Elasa will have The American Girls, Pinkalicious (The Princess of Pink, if you please!), Angelina, and other non-motor-vehicle-related selections, and Gavin will have a pile of truck books...every. single. time!!!
Out of self-defense, perhaps, against getting only books that are technical and read like a manual for little tykes in blue jeans, I often scour the bookshelves at the library for books that feature trucks, but that also have a story and use a little imagination! Sometimes I hit a home run with just such a book and other times I don't even get off home plate!
In any case, we have had enough truck books through our house- some from the library and some to stay- to accumulate a pile of favorites and I have chosen to feature 10 of them...
1. 20 Big Trucks In The Middle of The Street, by Mark Lee, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus.
I put this book in the #1 position because in my opinion, it is one of the best out there in this particular genre!
The book begins with the words, "One ice-cream truck selling everything sweet breaks down and blocks the middle of our street." From there is goes on to count the various trucks as they get stuck behind the ice-cream truck on a narrow, one-way street. And taking in all the excitement is a boy on his little red bike riding around the block and getting various points of perspective. He is therefore the one to come up with the perfect solution for the dilemma- move the broken down truck out of the way using a crane (which is #5 in the line-up!) The book ends with, "Just one truck on the side of my street. An ice-cream truck selling everything sweet." And who is getting an ice-cream cone? Why the little boy, of course! The pictures in this book are great, showing different views of the traffic jam and of the people who congregate at the scene to view & give opinions on the situation. When we first had this book out from the library several months ago, Parker loved it! He wanted to look at the ice-cream truck over and over again...and the book is so charming that I didn't even mind!!!
2. Drive, written and illustrated by Nathan Clement.
Drive uses very simple words and sentences to tell the story of a little boy's dad who drives a big truck. Simple words may be part of the charm, but pictures that tell the rest of the story complete it. In the final picture, we're looking over the hood of the big rig while daddy plays ball with his son after driving "all the way home."
3. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.
I picked this one up at the library with this review in mind, not yet knowing if my boys would like it or not! Parker was very receptive to having it read for a bedtime story and was soon repeating phrases after me: "Goodnight, Crane Truck, goodnight." The book goes through the various familiar trucks on the construction site and puts them all to bed! The cement mixer cuts his engine, slows his drum, and dreams sweet dreams of twirly fun. The crane goes to sleep with a teddy-bear on his bumper and a star hanging from his boom. The pictures, with their muted tones and grainy effects, are sweet and sleepy-looking, making this a perfect bed-time companion for truck-lovers!
4. Duck in the Truck, written and illustrated by Jez Alborough.
Elasa was actually the first one of the children to love this book as a toddler, so I suppose we now have proof that just because the word "truck" is in the title doesn't mean it's only for boys! This very humorous story of a duck who gets "stuck in the muck" is very similar to Sheep in a Jeep (reviewed here) but is by a different author (they just share a similar sense of humor!) It's always so much fun to read a book that tells a good story with short rhymes and great pictures, so it's no wonder that this book can satisfy both the reader and the listener...even after you all have it memorized!
5. Heavy-Duty Trucks, by Joyce Milton, illustrated by Richard Courtney
Gavin loved this book so much during the Summer of 2013 that it is the one we chose to have his name put inside when he completed the library's Summer reading program that year! I will also have to give this book credit for teaching me that a refrigerated truck is called a reefer. I never knew it before! This is definitely a book about different kinds of trucks (moving vans, cherry pickers, fire trucks, tower cranes and pavement profilers) and even has the technical terms to go with them, but somehow, the author manages to make it interesting and likeable, and it would therefore rate pretty high on my list of decent truck books for boys. And for the mothers who read them!!!
6. Go! Go! Go! Stop! written and illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper.
This book has a very humorous take on how stop-lights were invented! Paired with pictures of construction vehicles with very expressive faces, this story is a unique and friendly read-aloud. It is a new book for us, as well as for the library, but Parker, especially, has taken a shine to it! He probably doesn't get the little moral within the pages about taking turns and working together, but there it is all the same, making the book all the more worth it's weight in my library bag!
7. Katy and the Big Snow, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton.
I am quite sure that most of you already have this classic on your shelves, but there was a time when I read this particular book over and over again, so when I was perusing my own bookshelves to see what I had to add to this review, this one waved a hand at me to remind me of the special place it has in my heart! You just can't help but love Katy, the beautiful red crawler tractor who finally gets a chance to use her snowplow and save the city of Geoppolis when a huge snow renders all the smaller plows helpless! Virginia Burton's books are wonderful, so if you have yet to make their acquaintance, please do it now...and start with Katy!
8. LEGO City: Trucks Around The City
Gavin was given this book for his birthday when he turned two and he really liked it! Now that we have another two-year-old that likes it, I would say that we have a pretty good recommendation for the book! Adding to the appeal of a simple story dealing with the trucks everyone loves is the fact that they are all made out of legos...and that alone is pretty fascinating!
10. Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, written and illustrated by Richard Scarry.
I didn't feel right doing a book review on favorite truck books without including this one, even though I already featured it in another review! I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and since all of my children have loved this book, credit is certainly due. If book # 9 has a picture of pretty much every truck known to man, then this book has about every vehicle known to man and his imagination!
Yes, if I was stranded on a desert island with my boys and only one truck book, this would be the one I would want.
After all, it might be handy to know that a refrigerated truck is called a reefer, but it might be life-saving to know how to use your imagination.
Even in a world of truck books, I am rooting for the latter!
I think I know more about trucks than I ever did before in my life. Not that I could fix them or tell you anything about what's under the hood, oh, no, but identify them by sight while passing a construction site or barreling down the interstate? Yes, that's what I am talking about!
If you would like to explore some of the differences between boys and girls, just take a peek into our library bag! Elasa and Gavin both enjoy many of the same books, like Arthur, Poppleton, and Henry and Mudge, but for personal favorites Elasa will have The American Girls, Pinkalicious (The Princess of Pink, if you please!), Angelina, and other non-motor-vehicle-related selections, and Gavin will have a pile of truck books...every. single. time!!!
Out of self-defense, perhaps, against getting only books that are technical and read like a manual for little tykes in blue jeans, I often scour the bookshelves at the library for books that feature trucks, but that also have a story and use a little imagination! Sometimes I hit a home run with just such a book and other times I don't even get off home plate!
In any case, we have had enough truck books through our house- some from the library and some to stay- to accumulate a pile of favorites and I have chosen to feature 10 of them...
1. 20 Big Trucks In The Middle of The Street, by Mark Lee, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus.
I put this book in the #1 position because in my opinion, it is one of the best out there in this particular genre!
The book begins with the words, "One ice-cream truck selling everything sweet breaks down and blocks the middle of our street." From there is goes on to count the various trucks as they get stuck behind the ice-cream truck on a narrow, one-way street. And taking in all the excitement is a boy on his little red bike riding around the block and getting various points of perspective. He is therefore the one to come up with the perfect solution for the dilemma- move the broken down truck out of the way using a crane (which is #5 in the line-up!) The book ends with, "Just one truck on the side of my street. An ice-cream truck selling everything sweet." And who is getting an ice-cream cone? Why the little boy, of course! The pictures in this book are great, showing different views of the traffic jam and of the people who congregate at the scene to view & give opinions on the situation. When we first had this book out from the library several months ago, Parker loved it! He wanted to look at the ice-cream truck over and over again...and the book is so charming that I didn't even mind!!!
2. Drive, written and illustrated by Nathan Clement.
Drive uses very simple words and sentences to tell the story of a little boy's dad who drives a big truck. Simple words may be part of the charm, but pictures that tell the rest of the story complete it. In the final picture, we're looking over the hood of the big rig while daddy plays ball with his son after driving "all the way home."
3. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.
I picked this one up at the library with this review in mind, not yet knowing if my boys would like it or not! Parker was very receptive to having it read for a bedtime story and was soon repeating phrases after me: "Goodnight, Crane Truck, goodnight." The book goes through the various familiar trucks on the construction site and puts them all to bed! The cement mixer cuts his engine, slows his drum, and dreams sweet dreams of twirly fun. The crane goes to sleep with a teddy-bear on his bumper and a star hanging from his boom. The pictures, with their muted tones and grainy effects, are sweet and sleepy-looking, making this a perfect bed-time companion for truck-lovers!
4. Duck in the Truck, written and illustrated by Jez Alborough.
Elasa was actually the first one of the children to love this book as a toddler, so I suppose we now have proof that just because the word "truck" is in the title doesn't mean it's only for boys! This very humorous story of a duck who gets "stuck in the muck" is very similar to Sheep in a Jeep (reviewed here) but is by a different author (they just share a similar sense of humor!) It's always so much fun to read a book that tells a good story with short rhymes and great pictures, so it's no wonder that this book can satisfy both the reader and the listener...even after you all have it memorized!
5. Heavy-Duty Trucks, by Joyce Milton, illustrated by Richard Courtney
Gavin loved this book so much during the Summer of 2013 that it is the one we chose to have his name put inside when he completed the library's Summer reading program that year! I will also have to give this book credit for teaching me that a refrigerated truck is called a reefer. I never knew it before! This is definitely a book about different kinds of trucks (moving vans, cherry pickers, fire trucks, tower cranes and pavement profilers) and even has the technical terms to go with them, but somehow, the author manages to make it interesting and likeable, and it would therefore rate pretty high on my list of decent truck books for boys. And for the mothers who read them!!!
6. Go! Go! Go! Stop! written and illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper.
This book has a very humorous take on how stop-lights were invented! Paired with pictures of construction vehicles with very expressive faces, this story is a unique and friendly read-aloud. It is a new book for us, as well as for the library, but Parker, especially, has taken a shine to it! He probably doesn't get the little moral within the pages about taking turns and working together, but there it is all the same, making the book all the more worth it's weight in my library bag!
7. Katy and the Big Snow, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton.
I am quite sure that most of you already have this classic on your shelves, but there was a time when I read this particular book over and over again, so when I was perusing my own bookshelves to see what I had to add to this review, this one waved a hand at me to remind me of the special place it has in my heart! You just can't help but love Katy, the beautiful red crawler tractor who finally gets a chance to use her snowplow and save the city of Geoppolis when a huge snow renders all the smaller plows helpless! Virginia Burton's books are wonderful, so if you have yet to make their acquaintance, please do it now...and start with Katy!
8. LEGO City: Trucks Around The City
Gavin was given this book for his birthday when he turned two and he really liked it! Now that we have another two-year-old that likes it, I would say that we have a pretty good recommendation for the book! Adding to the appeal of a simple story dealing with the trucks everyone loves is the fact that they are all made out of legos...and that alone is pretty fascinating!
9. My Big Truck Book, by Roger Priddy
The description on the back of this large, sturdy board book says, For kids who really love trucks! It should really say for kids who love pictures of trucks, since that is all the book is...picture after picture after picture of pretty much any and every truck you can imagine or hope to see, but I guess it's all the same difference! Even though I prefer books with stories, this book is colorful and interesting and almost as indestructible as that giant excavator on the front cover. Almost.
10. Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, written and illustrated by Richard Scarry.
I didn't feel right doing a book review on favorite truck books without including this one, even though I already featured it in another review! I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and since all of my children have loved this book, credit is certainly due. If book # 9 has a picture of pretty much every truck known to man, then this book has about every vehicle known to man and his imagination!
Yes, if I was stranded on a desert island with my boys and only one truck book, this would be the one I would want.
After all, it might be handy to know that a refrigerated truck is called a reefer, but it might be life-saving to know how to use your imagination.
Even in a world of truck books, I am rooting for the latter!
Love this review! I have a boy who lived and breathed trucks. We wore out two copies of #10! I thought I knew about lots of truck books but we only have three out of ten of the books you listed! You gave me more books to find at the library!
ReplyDeleteGina
I thought it might interest you to know that after reading this blog post I bought the Duck in the Truck for Dominic. It arrived this afternoon and he unwrapped it eagerly saying "oh wow!" when he saw the book. We have only had it a couple hours but already has been well read! So thanks for your excellent book ideas! Susanna
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Susanna! I love hearing this!!! Happy reading to you and Dominic! :)
Deletenice bLog! its interesting. thank you for sharing.... 24 hour truck tire repair
ReplyDelete