You call your son your little back-seat driver.
That’s because he likes to sit in the back in your car, and keep an eye out for anything he might like to drive someday. Or haul. Or dig. Or float, run, lift, pump, and tow. Anything with wheels, that’s what he notices.
He can’t wait until he grows up. But, if he has “The Ultimate Book of Vehicles From Around the World” by Anne-Sophie Baumann and Didier Balicevic by his side, he can pretend to drive, dig, or haul right now.
Let’s say he loves construction equipment. Big trucks that haul and dump. Gigantic machines that bust up buildings and dig holes in the ground. Machines that move dirt — that’s what he loves and he’ll find them all on the first pages of this book. Have he ever seen a scissors lift? If he hasn’t, he’ll get an idea of what it’s like by moving the one in this book. He’ll also see what happens when recycling trucks and garbage trucks pick up their big loads.
Or maybe he’s a fan of farms. Does he love tractors and combines? Then he’ll like the ones in this book, because he’ll see how the insides of some machines work.
Does your child and his grandfather share a love of trains? Then he’ll want to show grandpa what’s here: two big pages of trains complete with a chance to peek inside to see what they haul.
There are even more big trucks inside this book. Your child will see ambulances and fire trucks and a fire lift so he can help save someone’s life. He can look inside a great big freight ship, a luxury cruise ship, a medium-sized fishing boat, and a fancy yacht. If he wants to be an airplane pilot someday, then he’ll like seeing the inside of a jumbo jet, a cargo plane, and a glider. Be sure to spin the helicopter propeller!
And finally, if his need for speed is out of this world, check out the last page of this book. It’s going to send him over the moon!
So you say you’ve got a wheel-wild youngster in the house — one who can’t get enough of big machines that go? Then you’re going to want to go find “The Ultimate Book of Vehicles From Around the World.”
There’s more!
On just about every page, there are tabs to pull and flaps to lift. Your kids can deliver cargo, roll a cement mixer, raise a scissor truck, dump garbage, make hay, feed their neighbors, douse a fire, and captain a ship.
And what 3-to-5-year-old wouldn’t love all of the above? “The Ultimate Book of Vehicles From Around the World,” by Anne-Sophie Baumann and Didier Balicevic [23 pages, 2014, $19.99].
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.
