Children's Books about Cars and Trucks

I was never a car person and construction vehicles were not at all interesting either , until I became a mom. My son's first word after Mama was Bama which we soon discovered meant garbage truck, after that Didder which was digger and so on and so on.

What is the difference between a front loader and a backhoe? Here are reviews of 10 children's books about cars and trucks, as well as more recommendations.

Children's picture books about cars, trucks, fire engines, ditch diggers, steam shovels and other equipment seem to particularly appeal to young children. Some of the children's picture books below are classics, while some of the other recommended books are more recent.

As the wildly successful "Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site" has shown, stories about trucks need not be tough. There can be warm, fuzzy elements amid the concrete and scrap metal. Even a teddy bear can find its way in. Perhaps there's just something appealing about the juxtaposition of soft, fluffy animals and heavy-metal loaders, which feature in two new picture books this season.

ALONG A LONG ROAD Written and illustrated by Frank Viva. 40 pp. Little, Brown. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) A terrific debut from Viva, an award-winning illustrator and frequent cover artist for The New Yorker, this sleek and stylish travelogue follows a lone cyclist on a continuous path that runs from first page to last.