Encourage Kids’ Interest in Trucking with These Top Picks
Anyone with little kids knows that the minute they spy a big truck out the window, they will stop what they’re doing, press their noses to the glass, and watch for hours, completely mesmerized. It doesn’t matter if it’s a garbage truck, construction vehicle, or big rig—there’s just something magical about trucks.
So what better way to encourage this interest even more (and perhaps spark a future career) than through books? Below, we’ve rounded up our top picks for kids of all ages.
Picture Books for Little Truckers
Big Rig by Jamie A. Swenson
Vibrant images accompany a fun trucking tale that introduces little ones to trucking concepts and jargon. With a 4.8-star rating, this one’s a definite crowd-pleaser!
Buy the book on Amazon.
What’s In My Truck? by Roger Priddy. (A Slide & Find Book)
Even better than awesome pictures? Awesome pictures with tactile tasks for little fingers to master, like sliding doors that open up to reveal the truck’s cargo.
Buy the book on Amazon.
Popular Truck Tales
Good Night Trucks by Adam Gamble & Mark Jasper
As part of the popular “Good Night Our World” series, this book focuses on every type of truck imaginable, from semi-trucks, transport trucks, logging trucks, delivery trucks, heavy load trucks, and more. Perfect for any kid who’s ever stared out the window in awe at big trucks.
Buy the book on Amazon.
With Any Luck, I’ll Drive a Truck by David Friend
Support your kiddo’s interest in trucks with this aspirational story that follows a little boy and girl as they try out 12 different trucks, including bulldozers, backhoes, trailers, and tractors.
Buy the book on Amazon.
Hot Off the Presses
Trucker Kid by Carol Gordon Ekster
The spirit of this book captured us for two reasons. First, we love the fact it talks about what it’s like to be a trucker’s kid. Any trucking family knows that this isn’t the stereotypical mom/dad job where the parent goes off to an office from 9-5. Children of long-haul truckers often have to deal with their parent’s absence for days or even weeks at a time.
We also love that the kid featured on the cover is a girl. Anyone who follows our blog knows we’re big fans of getting more girls and women interested in trucking.
(Speaking of, check out our article about how carriers can help female drivers change the face of trucking and an overview of what the FMCSA is doing to get more women into trucking.)
Buy the book on Amazon.
Truck Drivers and What They Do by Liesbet Slegers
Installment #18 in the popular “Profession Series,” this book will be published in April 2023. Not only does it celebrate a child’s interest in trucks, but it also discusses what truck drivers do daily and how they serve as a critical element in keeping commerce moving.
Preorder the book on Amazon.
For Young Adults
The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy
If you have a teenager with a touch of wanderlust who is maybe thinking of trekking cross country or taking a gap year before college, this might be the book for them. In this colorful memoir, the author chronicles his life on the road with his 53-foot eighteen-wheeler he’s named Cassidy.
Buy the book on Amazon.
Mothertrucker: Finding Joy on the Loneliest Road in America by Amy Butcher
Labeled an Amazon Editor’s Pick in Best Biographies and Memoirs, this book was written by a woman named Amy Butcher who was looking to shake up her life. And she did exactly that after reaching out to Joy “Mothertrucker” Wiebe.
Joy is “the nation’s only female ice road trucker, a woman who maneuvered big rigs through the Alaskan wilderness along the deadliest road in America.” The story chronicles Amy’s adventures riding shotgun with Joy on a four-hundred-mile journey.
Buy the book on Amazon.
And for those “big kids” who already work in the trucking industry . . .
Check out our very own resource library, which we designed for those in the transportation industry tasked with managing DOT compliance. This library is chock full of easy-to-digest articles, webinars, infographics, case studies, and more.
Happy reading!
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