Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Verdict: Niche Perfection | Parent Survival: 8/10

This book is sixty-nine pages long. It contains hundreds of vehicles. There is a small golden bug hidden on every single spread. Your child will want to find every Goldbug. Your child will want to name every vehicle. Your child will want to do this every day for six months.

You will not finish this book in one sitting. You will not finish it in ten sittings. This book does not end. It simply pauses until your child opens it again.

It is magnificent.

The Silly Vehicles

Here’s what makes this book special: Richard Scarry understood that vehicles don’t have to be realistic to be captivating. They can be funny.

There’s a pickle car. A banana car. A pencil car. A toothpaste tube car. A car shaped like an ear of corn. A crocodile driving a shoe. A worm in a tiny apple-shaped vehicle. A cat driving a car made of cheese. A hotdog car. An ice cream cone car. A car that’s just… a giant roller skate.

Every page has something ridiculous tucked into the corner. Your kid will spot the pickle car and laugh—genuinely laugh—and then spend ten minutes looking for more absurd vehicles. This might be one of the first books your child actually finds funny, especially if they’re already into vehicles.

There’s also a loose plot—the Pig family is driving to the beach, Sergeant Murphy is chasing someone on every spread—but that’s not really the point. The point is imagination and comedy on every single page.

The Goldbug Problem

And hidden in it all: Goldbug. A tiny golden bug, tucked into each scene, waiting to be found.

Finding Goldbug becomes an obsession. Not just for your child—for you. You will be lying awake at 11pm thinking “where was Goldbug on the airport page?” You will develop theories. You will Google it. You will feel genuine triumph when you spot him before your kid does.

This is not healthy. I don’t care. Finding Goldbug is the only thing that matters now.

Why It Works

Scarry understood something fundamental: kids don’t need plot. They need density and discovery. They need pages they can stare at for twenty minutes, finding new things every time. They need to point and name and ask “what’s that one doing?” four hundred times. And they need things that make them laugh.

This book delivers on all of it. Every page is a world. You can spend an entire bedtime routine on the construction site spread. You can have a fifteen-minute conversation about why there’s a mouse driving a cheese car. The book expands to fill whatever time you have—and it rewards repeated visits, because there’s always something you didn’t notice before.

The Length Issue

I won’t lie to you: this book is long. Sixty-nine pages of dense illustration. If your kid wants to “read” the whole thing, you’re looking at a forty-minute commitment minimum.

The trick is to not read it cover to cover. Pick a spread. Explore it. Find Goldbug. Laugh at the pencil car. Move on with your life. Come back tomorrow for a different spread.

Your child may not accept this approach. Good luck.

Best For

Ages 2-5. Kids who are obsessed with vehicles and ready for a book that makes them laugh. Parents who appreciate imagination and absurdist illustration. Anyone who wants a book that will genuinely occupy a child for long periods while also being actually enjoyable.

Also by Scarry: His backlist is enormous—Busy, Busy Town, What Do People Do All Day?, Best Word Book Ever. All have the same dense, imaginative energy. All will consume your life.

Buy it here (Affiliate link. Pickle car fund.)