The 10 Best Truck Books for Toddlers (2023)
I was surrounded by big rigs on all sides of me. “Wow, there are a lot of big trucks on the road right now!” I exclaimed.
“Big trucks!” my 18-month-old little boy repeated excitedly.
That was all it took to begin his obsession with “big trucks,” which included anything that was big and moved.
Naturally, as a librarian, I sought out books that included this interest. What better way to keep him interested in reading than to read about his favorite thing?
As with all my children’s book-buying expenditures, finding good books that also include trucks wasn’t an easy task. But eventually, I was able to put together this list for you of the best truck books for toddlers.
10 of the Most Exciting Truck Books for Toddlers
1. Dig Dig Digging*
This book includes a rhyme and action for each truck or vehicle included with colorful illustrations. Great for young readers. It covers many different types of vehicles – road machines, fire trucks, rescue machines, farm machines, etc. Dig Dig Digging describes the actions they take in a fun story about all of their work.
In the end, the machines, all get to rest from the work they’ve been so busy with.
2. Lift-the-Flap Tab: Trucks
This is a lift-the-flap book that covers the trucks you see around the frame of the book cover. It names the truck, explains its role, and gives some extra details about specific items on the truck under the flaps. At around 2, this was one of my son’s favorite books.
Lift-the-Flap Tab: Trucks is fun for little ones to explore. Let your child interact with it rather than worrying about reading everything.
3. Where do Diggers Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres
This, once again, goes through a lot of different types of trucks (the garbage truck, snow plow, fire truck, monster trucks, etc.) alongside the common trucks.
Where do Diggers Sleep at Night? is a well-written kind of bedtime lullaby that I’m sure your child will love. Each page highlights a different type of truck and asks how they sleep at night.
4. Noisy Trucks
This is a simple book with a few different kinds of trucks–a big rig, a monster truck, a fire truck, a digger, and a cement mixer. Each truck has a sound button embedded in the page.
My kids both love Noisy Trucks at 1 and 3 years old. They fight over who gets to push the sound buttons and love imitating the truck sounds they hear. Great if your little one is obsessed with all different kinds of trucks. (Be careful, the bidding breaks easily on this one.)
5. Dig It! Dump It! Build It!*
Your child will love this book if they love sounds. Dig It! Dump It! Build It! includes 10 different construction sounds and identifies the items on the page as they go about their jobs. This is a great book to teach your child the names of all of the construction trucks and tools. This book helps build kids’ truck vocabulary.
Not to mention, kids love pressing buttons and hearing new sounds!
6. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site & Mighty Mighty Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
This is one of the books that taught my son the specific names of the different trucks. It goes through each of the machines–crane truck, dump truck, cement mixer, bulldozer, and excavator. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site describes each machine, along with its job and tasks. Then the machine shuts down for the night and goes to sleep. It’s the perfect good night story little truck fans.
Mighty, Mighty Construction Site tells the story of a big job that requires the power of many different construction trucks. It teaches kids about teamwork and valuing others. Both are a picture book with beautiful illustrations by tom lichtenheld.
7. Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
This new classic little blue truck board book is great for toddlers. It’s a sweet story about a friendly and helpful little blue truck. A dump truck teaches the lesson of how important it is to be considerate of others when he gets stuck on a muddy country road. Little Blue Truck and a pack of farm animal friends come to the rescue. My son always gets so excited when the dump truck shows up and loves imitating the “beep beep beep” of the little blue truck.
Little Blue Truck is one of the few truck books with a theme/motif. I think your truck-loving child will love this one as much as mine both have.
8. Roadwork and Demolition by Sally Sutton
This book uses rhythmic text as it describes roadwork in a fun, rhymic way that is sure to keep a child’s attention. Roadwork uses words to describe the sounds the roadwork makes and has fantastic illustrations that include a large number of trucks.
The sequel to Roadwork comes back to tell the story of tearing down. Demolition uses the same cadence and fun, almost sign-song language as the previous book. The graphics are incredible and your young truck-lovers are sure to love seeing their favorite machines at work in this book.
9. B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC
This is a great truck-themed ABC book. If your child loves construction vehicles, introducing the ABCs to him in this way might grab their attention. It’s a great option to have and a good way to learn their letters alongside something that your child is interested in.
There are a couple of ABC truck books, but the graphics and flow of B Is for Bulldozer stood out to me as the best.
10. I Am A Garbage Truck
If you have a truck-loving toddler, you’re probably familiar with the garbage truck. Both of my sons love garbage trucks. So this book is perfect for young children and truck lovers alike. Follow along as the garbage and recycle truck make their rounds. And teach your toddler about the purpose of these trash trucks.
The board book is shaped like a garbage truck for even more fun.
Related: The Best Books for 2-Year-Olds
The Best Truck Books for Toddlers
The best toddler truck books from a librarian and mom.
- Dig Dig Digging
- Dig It! Dump It! Build It!
- Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and Mighty Mighty Construction Site
- Little Blue Truck
- Lift-the-Flap Tab: Trucks
- Where do Diggers Sleep at Night?
- Noisy Trucks
- Roadwork (Construction Crew) and Demolition (Construction Crew)
- B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC
- I Am A Garbage Truck
Those are the 10 best truck books for toddlers. I hope this list helps you if you’re looking for truck books for your toddler or if you’re looking for a way to engage your child with reading by building on his/her interests.
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References
Willingham. (2015). Raising Kids Who Read : What Parents and Teachers Can Do. (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
