Wheels, The Big Fun Book of Vehicles Review

Reviewed by Lisa

My son absolutely loves wheels – you name it, if it has wheels on it, he will play with it!  With trains, cars and bikes being his favourite, when we saw this book we thought that he would love it – and we were right!  The book travels through time and countries, looking at how different vehicles have developed and changed, and my son enjoyed looking at each individual picture to see how they worked and how they have changed throughout history.  There are different animal characters, including ‘Otto’ the cat and ‘Brutus’ the bear that take you through the book, and you can spot these and other characters on each page which I am sure younger readers would especially enjoy.  There are fun educational facts, answering questions like ‘which bicycle race does the leader wear a pink jersey?’ and quirky remarks throughout.  The illustrations have comedy value to them, especially with the different animals driving the vehicles and playing games, and fun comments such as ‘Time to scoop out the litter box’ written next to a ‘CAT’ digger.  I think Tom Schamp put these in more to keep the adults entertained than the children – and it certainly did the job for me while reading it to my son!

Every type of vehicle seems to be covered in this book, from bikes to buses, carriages to hay wagons and diggers to trains.  There is even a Harley Davidson, skateboards, and electric scooters included, plus vehicles I have never seen before. Every page is full up of things to look at, and the illustrations are so colourful that this book can be read in one sitting or just picked up and looked at for a few minutes here and there.  My son was there for ages deciding which vehicle he would most like to ride in, and which bike would win a race!  The whole layout of the book has been well thought out, and at the end Tom Schamp draws what the future may look like in the world of wheels, which really sparked my son’s imagination on to what he thinks will be invented next and where he would travel in it!

Tom Schamp has written and illustrated more than thirty children’s books, and I am looking forward to reading some more of them, starting with ‘It’s a Great, Big Colourful World’.  This book comes as a hardback, measuring just over 28 by 33 cm, and the pages are made of good quality thick paper so will not easily tear.  It was delivered with cardboard wrapping that not only protected it well but could also be recycled.  I think the book is aimed at around five to eight year olds (although I think most adults will enjoy reading it as well), and it is educational, fun, humorous and colourful. It is on the slightly pricier side due to the high quality of materials and content, but I would definitely recommend buying it for other children who love transport as much as my son does.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £18.99
This product can be purchased from all major book shops, plus Amazon: Wheels: The Big Fun Book of Vehicles : Schamp, Tom: Amazon.co.uk: Books