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Transport and Travel Topic

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Transport and Journeys Topic Booklist

Toot toot! Beep beep! All Aboard! From buses and bicycles to ferries and flying machines, zoom into the topic with our hand-picked selection of the best children’s books about transport and journeys…

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Books about cars, buses and trucks

John Birningham
Picturebook
This classic picture book, by the popular author John Birningham, is a story about sharing and helping others. The simple storyline follows a repeated structure and is accompanied by detailed illustrations. A great read for younger classes.
Jan and Jerry Oke
Picturebook
This is a photo book that has become very popular in Early Years and KS1! It follows the story of a boy's adventures with his toy bus, told through the voice of the bus itself. If you are looking for something a little bit different for your topic, we highly recommend this one!
Mike Smith
Picturebook
This is a really fun story popular with reception and KS1 classes. When the bus driver takes a different route one day, there are too many passengers to fit on the bus and the only solution is to add more and more decks. There is also a big fold-out page at the end showing the enormous bus.
Michelle Robinson
 & Jez Tuya
Picturebook
From Lollies Award-winning Michelle Robinson comes this busy story based on the tongue-twister, bursting with trucks, doggie drivers and colour! Red Lorry and Yellow Lorry must get to the construction site, but they have a snow-drift, a breakdown and a speeding tractor to contend with along the way... Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry: which one would you drive? Jam-packed with lorries, trucks, cars, motorbikes and all kinds of vehicles!
Katie Abey
Picturebook
Choose your favourite vehicle and LET'S GO! Join all the busy animals as they zoom around in every kind of vehicle you can imagine, vibrantly illustrated by the talented Katie Abey. Is that a cheeky monkey flying a plane? And did I see a llama riding a scooter? And there's a whole pack of animals catching that bus. All the animals are on the move in their favourite vehicles, zipping by in their own hilarious way. Travel across airports, race through city streets in fire engines and drive around building sites. Wherever you're going today ... tell us how it should be done! We Catch the Bus invites children to choose their favourite vehicles and how they like to travel over 12 spreads, packed with animals driving cars, buses, diggers, spacecraft, bikes, ships, scooters and more. With interactive speech bubbles and hilarious shout outs, this hilarious follow-up to We Wear Pants and We Eat Bananas is perfect for fans of You Choose and Just Imagine and kids who love to be on the move.

Books about trains

Benedict Blathwayt
Picturebook
When Duffy Driver leaves the brakes off, the Little Red Train sets off down the track without him! Duffy tries everything he can think of to catch up with the train, with a little help from a tractor, some horses, a boat and a helicopter! An enjoyable story to read over and over again.
Emily Rand
Picturebook
A little girl and her mummy are visiting Grandpa on the train. It's very busy - hold on tight! But when they arrive at their destination something is wrong . . . teddy has gone missing. Just when it looks like she'll never see Teddy again, Grandpa has an idea! And suddenly the little girl is off on a magical journey to rescue her teddy. Have you ever wondered where your lost objects go? With charming and stylish illustrations, this books is perfect for curious minds.

Books about bikes

Quentin Blake
Picturebook
A hilarious story telling the tale of Mrs Armitage and her dog, Breakspear. Instead of enjoying a simple bicycle ride, the eccentric Mrs Armitage is constantly looking for ways of upgrading her bike. Soon it barely resembles a bicycle at all! A big hit with KS1.
Alison Farrell
Picturebook
A wonderful celebration of bicycles of all kinds! Etta the Elephant is taking a trip to her Aunt Ellen's house and passes through bicycle-filled Cycle City, filled with bikes of all shapes and sizes, and then gets to witness a brilliant bicycle parade. This is an engaging picture book with so many details to spot in the illustrations and a very good stimulus for generating discussion and descriptive writing.

Books about planes and rockets

Ken Wilson-Max
Picturebook

Astrid has loved space ever since she can remember and wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. Even when her dad gently reminds her of the challenges ahead (eating food out of a tube, getting used to near-zero gravity, sleeping on her own amongst the stars), she is confident – “I can do that!”

This is a story full of tenderness and adventure, with a lovely surprise ending when Astrid and Dad go to pick up Mum from the airbase – where has she been?

This gentle picture book with distinctive earthy illustrations is a lovely read-aloud for Reception/Year 1 with a wonderful inclusive message at its heart, supported by the mini fact-files about female and BAME astronauts at the end.

Katie Haworth
 & Daniel Rieley
Picturebook
Emma Jane takes a journey around the world in her aeroplane. She flies past impressive cities like Paris, Venice and New York, taking in the sites from above. But when her plane gets into trouble, can her animal friends find a way to help? The illustrations are highly appealing, the fun rhyming text is great for joining in with and it is important to see female pilots like Emma Jane represented in children's stories.
Isabel Sanchez Vegara
 & Maria Diamantes
Non-fiction
Part of the Little People, Big Dreams series, this book provides a simple biography of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly a plane all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, from her early childhood to her first flying lesson and on to her world famous career as a pilot.
Lonely Planet Kids, Tom Cornell & Clive Gifford
 & James Gulliver Hancock
Non-fiction Picturebook
Where does luggage go after check in? What happens in the control tower? How do planes actually fly? This interactive, lift-the-flap book takes you behind-the-scenes to uncover the hidden secrets of the airport - from a peek inside the cockpit to the hustle and bustle of departures. In this follow-up to How Cities Work , we explore the earliest airports through to today's giant transport hubs and what airports could look like in the future. Packed with amazing facts and illustrations from James Gulliver Hancock, it'll surprise and delight readers young and old, ensuring they never look at air travel in the same way again. Created in consultation with Tom Cornell, VP Airspace / Airfields, Americas at Landrum & Brown. Contents include: Airports Through the Ages The Great Get-to-the-Airport Race Find Your Way Round the Airport The Maintenance Hangar In the Terminal Inside an Aircraft The Control Tower Sees All Preparing Planes Ship That Cargo The Incredible Luggage Journey Airports of the Future

Books about journeys

Martin Howard
 & Christopher Corr
Non-fiction
A World Full of Journeys tells some of the most fascinating stories of migration throughout history. From the very first humans who left Africa almost 70,000 years ago and moved around the world, to immigrants welcomed to America at Ellis Island, this book is packed with fascinating tales of human triumph. Beautifully illustrated with bright pictures and maps detailing these ' journeys bring these stories to life. This is a detailed anthology that can be dipped into be classes learning about journeys and is perfect for readers who want to explore the fascinating stories of the people who have crossed the world.
Matt de la Pena
 & Christian Robinson
Picturebook
Winner of numerous awards, this picture book follows CJ and his grandmother as they make a bus journey across town. As they chat about what is important in life, the pair take in the truly diverse city scape, encountering a multitude of passengers and passers-by of all demographics. The story of the journey and the striking illustrations come together to positively depict a world wherein cultural divisions and segregation can find no place to land and difference is celebrated for its enriching cultural effect.
Aaron Becker
Picturebook

A beautiful, award-winning wordless picture book. It follows the journey of a young girl who draws a magic door in her bedroom and travels through fantasy worlds by boat, balloon and magic carpet. Highly recommended for pupils across the whole primary range.

Oliver Jeffers
Picturebook
This is the endearing story of a boy and the journey he undertakes to return a lost penguin back to its home. This simple story with beautiful illustrations has also been made into an animated movie.

Transport and Travel: Non-Fiction Books

Emily Bone
 & Daniel Taylor
Non-fiction
A stunning atlas with 15 beautifully illustrated maps for children to pore over. Young explorers can discover the countries, continents, oceans, mountains and ice caps of our amazing planet and learn where different animals and people live. There are fascinating facts about each country, plus flags and capital cities and an index of place names.
Moira Butterfield
 & Bryony Clarkson
Non-fiction
A vibrant celebration of things that go, with a lively text from author Moira Butterfield and pictures from debut-talent Bryony Clarkson. Come and hitch a ride in vehicles of every shape and size - from family cars to double-decker buses, chugging tractors to speedy supercars, and gigantic monster-trucks to noisy fire engines. With bounce-along rhythms and fascinating facts from author Moira Butterfield, and bright, lively pictures by rising star Bryony Clarkson, any single reading of My Big Book of Transport is sure to result in a victory lap or two!
William Bee
Non-fiction
Vroom Vroom! Peep Peep! We have blast off! William Bee is back with this bumper book of all his favourite vehicles! Find out all about the weird and wonderful world of trucks, trains, and tractors, as well as aeroplanes, submarines, rockets and more! It features William's turbo-powered high speed truck, his fire truck, his super collection of tractors - from extra-wide to super-small - and his locomotives, as well as his rocket in which he travels to the moon, his super speedy speedboat (which gets stolen by his dog!). Join William, his dog and his gang of unruly traffic cones on a grand tour of the world of transport. And can you spot the toy rabbit hidden on every double page spread? This hardback anthology of three books is the perfect gift for the little transport enthusiast in your life.

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