Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
The Pig family's trip crosses a densely illustrated world of ordinary, specialized and wildly invented vehicles, with Goldbug hidden on every spread.
- First published
- 1974
- Reading stage
- Picture books & shared reading
Reading this with your child
Choose one route through a crowded page
The book contains hundreds of vehicles and many small incidents. Follow the Pig family's journey, hunt for Goldbug, trace one kind of vehicle or answer one function question; trying to process every label at once can bury the story.
Move from naming to purpose
Ask what a freight train, crane, farm vehicle or emergency vehicle does and what problem it solves. The publisher's description emphasizes both vehicle variety and community functions, which makes the book useful beyond object identification.
A visual search book with a travel story
Unlike a pure picture dictionary, the family's drive gives the spreads an order and destination. A child can retell where the family has been even when the detailed side scenes attract most of the attention.
Compare before choosing: Choose Scarry for a humorous journey, hidden-object search and many fantastical vehicles; choose The Truck Book for a more systematic look at real truck types and their jobs. View the comparison title →
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