Big Book of Vehicles, a tactile picture book with great illustrations

What if Eric Carle illustrated one of Richard Scarry’s books with a more narrative vibe? First off, let’s remind you that Eric Carle is the illustrator behind Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Richard Scarry is the author and illustrator of over 300 books that show young children the myriad of things that happen or exist in their town. Big Book of Vehicles is a picture book that is all about the things that move. Some of them go in the air, on the water, underground, have people, cargo or move in the mountains, but they all go and kids will be able to turn to any page in this book and lose themselves in the best of all possible book ways.

I’ve seen books like these, your adult mind says, and to an extent you are correct. However, open Big Book of Vehicles to any page and you’ll see the X variable that will reel in young readers or curious kids. Some of the vehicles or scenery has different shades of color in it. The green bus has tiny specks of white and corners of it with a darker shade of green. One can imagine a potato stamp being used to create the illustrations and its impressions leaving these very slight imperfections on the paper. The dirt at the construction site has strata of darker and lighter brown that provide a greater feeling of texture and depth.

Meanwhile, all of the animals that inhabit the various scenes have the same variety of color in them too. The panda has a dirty white body that’s accented with tinges of black. The reindeer have darker spots or are made up of streaks of brown. The octopus is various shades of pink and the snake is a half-dozen different colors of green. Have a child think of an animal and they’re somewhere in Big Book of Vehicles as a passenger, pilot, driver or rider on that vehicle. 

The picture book sets up the vehicles with various locations that are listed in a table of contents. Kids can look at vehicles in snowy places, in the mountains, the farm, in the city, play vehicles and many more. The book’s front cover shows examples of each locale, but doesn’t tell audiences that this is the flow of the book. The cover also has the text and illustrations in a slightly raised and glossy presentation. Kids (and adults) love this tactile trick that sublimely encourages readers to run their fingers over them so that they feel each bumpy letter or vehicle outline.

This is also a very large, oversized picture book. Its size allows it to be read as a read-aloud book or goodnight book that then lends itself to be used as leisure reading. It’s during this time that the book has the chance to really impact emerging readers because they’ll spend time alone with the book, laughing at the cat driving a car, the rabbit driving the bus, the dog riding a bike or any number of animal and vehicle combinations.

Big Book of Vehicles has glossy pages that are thicker than average. The fact that they’re glossy also makes them stronger, and more resistant to rips and tears, which is important as kids will want some solo time with the book. All of this adds up to a vehicle book that will actually be used, and has that fun quality that means that young audiences will come back to it again and again.

Big Book of Vehicles is by Ronne Randall with illustrations by Britta Teckentrup and is available on Boxer Books and printed on Union Square and Co., a subsidiary of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

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