Ned is currently transport-mad, as are most of his mates. It has intrigued me how he has just picked up this absolute obsession.
Who’s Driving? by Belgian author/illustrator Leo Timmers is a spectacular book with numerous forms of transport. and it’s pleasing even for us (mum and dad). The book’s simple text, punctuated with vehicle ‘noises’, creates great excitement in our house.
Who’s driving the fire engine?
Elephant! He is driving to the fire station. Wheeooh wheeooh wheeooh!
As the jacket picture illustrates, all the animals that are driving the vehicles have a real crazy, almost unhinged look in their eyes that just make me laugh every time I read the book. And the colours Timmers uses are just so vibrant and rich that it is an incredible technicolur explosion.
Our other favorite is Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo and illustrated by Alex Ayliffe. Whenever we see a truck, a tractor or even just a road work ahead sign, Ned yells “Dig Dig”. We have the touch-and-feel, board book version of the picture book (which is also available as a paperback). Once again the colours used by Ayliffe are really vibrant with an emphasis on yellow and red – the colours of most diggers and trucks I guess!
The text has a nice jogging rhyme to it that exaggerates the noises and the movements the vehicles make.
‘Big red digger dig, dig, digging. Scooping up the earth, lifting and tipping’
The touch and feel element is small but adds a nice dimension to the book and means that the book can be loved from babies right up to 2+. The team of Mayo and Ayliffe have also written Emergency and Choo Choo Clickety Clack – which will be under the tree for Ned this year.
In August we had a guest post by mum Lisa, in which she also gave some great suggestions on transport books for ‘busy boys’.
||Who’s Driving? available online from the We Heart Books Store||
Hi guys..
I love your blog.. Thanks for linking to my list of NYC books for kids.. I hope you liked them!
Brooke
My daughter also went crazy for Byron Barton’s board books, especially Trucks. Even though it’s been in storage for a while (having made room for her overflowing picture books) we still talk about it.
We love ‘Dig, Dig, Digging’, and Rowan almost knows the words off by heart. And at music we learnt a tune to sing the words of this book. Rowan also loves ‘Emergency’, I’m not as big a fan. I can’t quite get the rhythm of the words.