2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Cars and Trucks and Things That Dig, Plus Dinosaurs and Robots

Okay, maybe the post title's a little out of control. I'm guessing you need no explanation for this topic. I'll just get to it, shall I? You will also notice the reviews are much shorter, as I am starting to run out of time. (I'm guessing your kid already has IF I BUILT A CAR by Chris Van Dusen, because you'd have to be in a coma to not understand how nutso I am for Chris Van Dusen, so I'm not even going to mention it here. Much.)

1. GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE by Sherry Duskey Rinker: I'm not entirely sure there's ever been a more perfect bedtime book for truck-crazed preschoolers.

2. DINOSAUR DIG by Penny Dale: They're dinosaurs...who are construction workers. DINOSAURS WHO ARE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS. Come on! Penny Dale is a mad genius.

3. CARS GALORE by Peter Stein (with art by Bob Staake, who I LOVE): A rhyming, traffic-filled celebration of every kind of real and made-up car your little car fanatic can possibly come up with.

4. EVERYTHING GOES: ON LAND by Brian Biggs: This crazy awesome book is about a little boy and his dad and their vehicle-filled trip to the big city. Every picture is jam-packed with people and vehicles and animals and numbers and other stuff - there is stuff to look at everywhere, some in close-up. It's like WHERE'S WALDO meets CARS AND TRUCKS AND THINGS THAT GO, on steroids.

5. OTIS AND THE TORNADO by Loren Long: the sequel to my much-beloved OTIS (which I KNOW you already have, right? RIGHT?) finds our sunny little tractor saving his farm friends when a tornado comes out of nowhere.

6. DINOTRUX by Chris Gall: Before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, prehistoric trucks did. (Really! You never learned this in school?) Learn all about things like the Dumplodocus. This book is like crack for truck-and-dinosaur loving kids. Give it to them as a pair with DINOSAUR DIG and watch their little heads explode.

7. THE THREE LITTLE ALIENS AND THE BIG BAD ROBOT by Margaret McNamara: The three little aliens' mom tells them to go out and make their way in the world, which they do - being mindful that they need to watch out for the Big Bad Robot. They go from planet to planet (one is too hot; one too crowded) before setting up homes and preparing to face off with the BBR. The art in this fun retelling is awesome, too.

8. ALONG A LONG ROAD by Frank Viva: In this, the quietest of the books I've chosen by far, a man sets out on a bicycle trip along a long road through many different landscapes. The minimal words and striking, five-color illustrations lend themselves to a reader imagining for themselves many of the stories that might happen along that road.

Comments

[Michele Moran]

A sequel to Otis?? Rock!

[Gift baskets]

I'll just get to it, shall I? You will also notice the reviews are much shorter, as I am starting to run out of time. (I'm guessing your kid already has Gift baskets

[Baby gift baskets]

I am starting to run out of time. (I'm guessing your kid already has Gift baskets

[justin bieber shoes]

Plus I always had a homeroom and all the paperwork that entails.