Grandma has this book, Trucks and Diggers: One to Ten : Counting from Caterpillar, which the kid LOVES. Turns out it's a part of a licensed series of Caterpillar-branded books that feature only official CAT equipment.
They're obviously designed to teach your little digger the superiority of US-made heavy machinery to its foreign competition. And if the kid learns a few things about counting, letters, and colors [mostly about yellow], it's an added bonus.
Check out the Caterpillar Licensed Merchandise series, including boardbooks like Trucks and Diggers: One to Ten : Counting and the hardcover C Is for Construction: Big Trucks and Diggers from A to Z at Amazon [amazon via grandma]
There's definitely evil at work here: we bought our kid the dump truck version of this book, and he's OBSESSED with it. Hasn't put it down for days. I'm having a guy I know at the NSA sweep it for mind-control devices.
Got a Caterpillar dump truck from Costco a few months ago. It was under $20. It's awesome - the bed is motorized (kid fills with lego and then dumps it), it moves back and forth, and "shakes" when it plays music. Problem is no on/off switch and no volume control...
This might make Madame's Amazon list - you don't have the only little girl who's obsessed with trucks. My folks got her a toy dump truck the other day which she totally loves. She calls it her "caahck" which is kind of a cross between "car" and "truck" and good enough for me.
[same here. the sloth habitat construction site at the zoo is the only thing that consistently delivers for the kid. -ed.]
Luckily, Monster is still content with Grandma and Uncle bringing him home new "books" from work at the truck/equipment dealership. Who knew the technical specs on excavators were so interesting?
As soon as Cat comes out with a book all about a feller/buncher, then i will be impressed. Oh sure, anyone can write a book about excavators but logging equipment is much more interesting.
Have you seen the John Deere stuff for kids? Now that is marketing genius. Tricycles (we have the Tuff Trike), bedding and the ever popular Johnny Tractor series of toys and books.
Already, at 3 years old, Monster thinks that green tractors work way better than green or blue ones.
Heck, you can even get JD fabrics. Other tractor companies have tried, but Massey-Ferguson just doesn't have as cool of a logo.
[1) that's what I loved about searching for books "by" Caterpillar on Amazon; half were tech manuals, half were boardbooks. 2) and don't steal my John Deere thunder, please. There's a holiday post coming up... -ed.]
Sorry sir. Uuuh, let me know if you need more links?