Darwin Marx (DMX) who is turning 3 years old soon, is really crazy about anything on wheels. The first song he heard and enjoyed was the Wheels on the Bus. So I bought a wheels on the bus sound book based on KBC recommendations for him to enjoy. [There are lots of formats of Wheels on the Bus available.]
He slowly started to recognize different vehicles. When he got addicted to TV he would watch cartoons involving fireman, ambulances, cars or police. So to distract him, I bought many books which had wheels to encourage him to keep reading. Some were early stage books like Baby’s First book of vehicles or touch and feel or anything which had wheels and were available in the local department store.
Here are few books that he likes and which helped him to keep up his reading habit.
- My First Touch and Find: Emergency by Campbell Publications – you can also find the entire My First Touch And Find series here.
- First Explorers: Things that Go by Campbell – We liked this one since the day we bought it because it had images showing both genders working in each field. For example a woman mechanic repairing a car, driving a truck etc. We always wanted him to know that anyone can do any job. But to find it in kids books, that too in car books was really surprising. This one has been read and re-read many times and is his favorite till now. This has one or two lines of facts and a small look and find activity in each scene.
- Bizzy Bear Series – Push, pull and slide books (Publishers – Nosy Crow) We have Bizzy bear Fire Rescue, Ambulance Rescue and building site. This one has rhyming words and one sentence in each page like “Bizzy bear bizzy bear hold on tight” and a rhyming one in another, “bizzy bear bizzy bear flashing lights”. It’s a perfect picture book for younger ones.
- Busy Tractor/Builders/Fire Station – (Publishers -Campbell) – Again a series of push, pull and slide books. We have read this again and again that I’ve kept it hidden from him so that he will read other books!
- Dreamland My Jumbo Vehicles Pictionary – This I bought during lockdown only because I know he will enjoy seeing so many vehicles in one book. It has vehicles listed in alphabetical order. I thought it may be too much for 2.5 yo but to my surprise he always wanted to learn one or two new ones from the book.
- My first JCB Digger Driver – Igloo books publication – This one is a must have if your kid loves vehicles. The illustrations are good and so is the sound. DMX didn’t let go of the book from the moment he got his eyes on it. He is the one who chose this while we were browsing in the bookstore. And he likes to play based on the book’s story. Nowadays when he sees a backhoe or concrete mixer he would call them by the book’s character’s name.
- Scholastic – I am an airplane/I am a tractor – These books are in the shape of airplane and tractor. It has few facts on the vehicles. Should you wish to order your books directly from Scholastic (kidsbookcafe.com is their first affiliate partners in India), you can click this special kbc link that takes you to the Scholastic website.
- Digger – (Igloo Publications) – This book is about how a digger’s day goes.
- Dinosaur Firefighters by Sarah McIntyre – This is a funny book about a diplodocus becoming firefighter and what problems it faces.
- Here we go! – my first treasury– Do you want an airplane story? How about a tug boat? A Police car? Well you can find all in this. And all the stories are about how the little ones overcome their fear or solve their problems or how helpful they can be.
- Om Pop-up books – This series has books on all sorts of modes of transport, Indian Mythology, fairytales, e.t.c. We have only train and truck as only these were available in the store. Very simple stories and nice illustration. Illustration is the one that first attracts me.
- Priddy books-What’s in my truck – is a very interesting book, it caught my kid’s attention and he likes to relate now to all the trucks he sees in the highway or near our home. It also has a Can You Find activity and a few facts.
- Priddy books – Playtown Emergency – You can find the different vehicles used in emergencies. For example, we know about firetrucks in general but what is being kept inside, which firetruck is used to put off forest fire or how will the Airport Emergency center be? It has enough details of emergency vehicles for the little ones to know.
- Discover and learn 100 words on the go – (by Cottage Door Press) is a colorful book with lots of vehicles on each page. It also has very few general words like clouds, bear etc. but most are of different vehicles.
- Tony Mitton’s Amazing Machines book series – Take your kids interest to next level. These books are all about what’s inside each vehicle and what are other similar vehicles. After reading about helicopters from this series DMX now says this is cockpit this is tail boom etc. Whenever he plays with his car he identifies car parts too. Parts are not too detailed but its enough for little ones to know.
- Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction site and Steam Train Dream Train – These two book comes as a set and individually as well. I bought this because I know he loves construction vehicles and trains but I didn’t expect the book to be with so many pages, I read both the books once to him and I don’t know how he remembered all the pages, from the next day onwards he would know if we skipped pages! He would say, “No, there’s an excavator missing” or “the elephant page you didn’t read”. He reads it before nap after nap and our day doesn’t end without reading these two, Playtown Emergency/other substitute and finally good night moon.
Looks like we will be adding part two of this post since we have added few new books to the collection.
Happy reading!
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