List of Truck Books for Toddlers

Little Blue Truck, by Alice Schertle
The Little Blue Truck is a delightful tale with great illustrations, a cute truck story, and a good moral lesson. It rhymes and was one of the first books that our son started finishing sentences in. The flagship book has lots of farm-animals for your young toddler to identify that the sequel does not. But, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way is still great fun. If you little one is really into these, the holiday editions (Christmas & Halloween) are not too shabby.

Alphabet Trucks, by Samantha R. Vamos
Learning letters is more fun with trucks and Alphabet Trucks is the best attempt at giving each letter a truck, we have seen. There are some pretty obscure trucks (and obscure terms for normal trucks) in there and our Son gets confused sometimes. But, the rhyming is solid and the illustrations of this truck book are full of things for a toddler to talk about.

Machines at Work Board Book, by Byron Barton
Machines at work is better for very young toddlers. It has simple colorful images and only a couple words on each page. However, I have to include it here because our son learned to recite the entire thing and so he sometimes elects to “read” it to us when he wants a break from being read-to. It’s so cute, we renewed this truck book from the library over and over until they told us “too much.”

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, by Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry’s Books have stood the test of time and now I know why. If you ask our toddler what book he wants read to him, it is a wasted question because “Trucks That Go” is the only answer. The book has a lot of things going for it. Each page is chalked full of things to ask questions about. There are characters that can be followed through the story. And, there is a hide-and-seek aspect that can be fun for both the parent and child. Some of the vehicles are fantastical and the book predates some of the more exciting vehicles of modernity (driver-less cars, segways, hoverboards, street-view cars, robotic garbage trucks, etc). But, those deficits can also be seen as features since your truck-obsessed child might learn the word “pickle” from the pickle truck and some of today’s most interesting “things that go” might not stand the test of time.

Big Rig, by Jamie A. Swenson
Big Rig is a super fun book about semi truck. The illustrations of this truck book are chalked full of interesting details and text has some adventure without being scary. There is also tons of fun noises for you and your toddler to make at various parts of the story. The last page has a fun trucker-terminology glossary that we have never managed to get through because the page doesn’t include the expansive settings of the other pages and so prompts a “The End” or a “Read Again?” from our son.

Monster Trucks, by Anika Denise
I think this monster truck book is intended to be seasonal (for Halloween), but I refuse to follow that guidance and read it about once a week. Mostly, this is because I have created silly-voices for each and every part of the story and so I have as much fun reading as my son does listening. But, I also think the story is pretty cute and am waiting for my son to fully grasp the sly ending. My only complaint is that part of the rhyming scheme is a bit unusual for a toddler-targeted book. You might want to read it through once or twice before jumping in with your toddler. Otherwise, you might stumble over a page or two.

Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?, by Brianna Caplan Sayres
Our son gives hints when he is ready for sleep or a nap and one of those is quoting from this book. It’s a fun truck book to read with a good cadence and cute illustrations. There are some gotchas for the parent reader (places where the patterns break and places where the author substitutes her own words and/or employs language tricks). So, this is also one that the perfectionist-performing-parent might want to do a practice-run on.

Blaze and the Monster Machines, by Random House
I believe that Blaze and the Monster Machines is actually a TV show on a channel that we don’t subscribe to. But, that has done nothing to diminish our toddler’s enjoyment of these monster trucks stories. As a trained engineer, I find the claim that these monster trucks books “promote STEM” to be a little dubious since the STEM concepts always seem pretty forced and books seamlessly go from talking about physics to breaking its laws. However, the characters are fun and some of the paperbacks come with CD’s. The CD’s are a real selling point as they make for great travel-entertainment. At one point, every time we go into the car our little guy would ask, “Listen to Blaze?”

Trucktown Books, by Jon Scieszka
When I first read Trucks Line Up I was a little skeptical of this series. It seemed insubstantial even for a children’s book. But, after reading a few others in the Trucktown series (at my son’s insistence) I developed a fondness for the characters. They are also fun books to read more than once because there is a tiny mystery in each one and if you read them enough your toddler will not only be able to recite the rhymes, but will be able to tell you the ending before the last page. Our son has also memorized the names and types of all 20+ characters. I recommend Smash Crash and Race from A to Z

Busy Trucks on the Go, by Eric Ode
We picked this truck-book up at a fundraiser based on the cover-image and title. But, the cover image is actually the least impressive part of the book. The illustrations are pleasant and full of things for your toddler to name and/or ask about. The text is readable and flows nicely. And, the little boy and his father (who don’t even appear on the cover) are expressive and realistic. I also like how this truck book progresses through the seasons so there is some diversity in weather and the character’s attire.