Ask a three-year-old to name the greatest vehicle and you will not hear “race car.” You will hear the one that comes down the street on a schedule the whole household knows by heart—enormous, deafening, faintly disgusting, and utterly dependable. A garbage truck is the rare piece of heavy machinery a child gets to watch work, from the hydraulic arm that lifts a bin higher than the roof of a car to the crusher that swallows a week of the family’s life in four seconds flat.
Drawing from Bookroo’s collection of garbage truck books, our editors picked twelve: the storytime classics with refrains children start shouting on the second reading, the board books built for counting bins at the curb, the true stories of sanitation workers who made the route into something more, and the nonfiction that finally answers where all of it goes. Start with the shortlist below, then follow the related topics out to dump trucks, community helpers, and recycling.
A garbage truck works the city all night long and would like you to know exactly what was on the menu.
A cheerful sanitation worker sets out to clear the trash from every last corner of a very dirty town.
A girl eagerly awaits the highlight of her week: the arrival of the garbage truck.
When a blizzard buries the city, a hero nobody recognizes clears the streets and disappears before morning.
A sanitation worker starts keeping the best things off his route, and ends up with a museum.
A New Orleans street sweeper who danced his whole route wakes to a city buried in what the storm left behind.
A six-year-old and the enormous honking truck that comes down his street become inseparable.
The construction crew takes on a run-down block, and this time the garbage trucks do the heavy lifting.
Garbage trucks tackle trash with roaring fun and rhythmic chaos.
A garbage truck works its way through the city one whoop, whoosh, and bump at a time.
A truck-shaped first book that follows the trash from the curb all the way to the dump.
A trip to the landfill and the recycling plant, told with photographs and a great many jokes.
Route days from first stop to landfill, the crew who does the lifting, and one very proud truck who thinks the smell is a compliment. Ages 3–8.
Discover where your garbage goes after collection.
A garbage truck finds friendship and adventure with a young boy after a lonely workday.
A rumbling mystery rolls down the street. What could it be?
Can Trash Truck and friends break their routine to find new playmates?
Join a boy and his trash truck on a small-town adventure full of imagination and friendship.
Discover the world of garbage trucks and their essential roles.
