I am sick of goddamn farms.

[albertcampionscat]

DS (2) is a city child. He is fascinated by books with detailed pictures showing streets, shops, lampposts, cars, trains, prams, people, clocks, houses, playgrounds, fire engines, in short the kind of things he sees every day.

He almost never shows any interest in books about animals (other than cats and dogs) or books set in the countryside or books with blurred artisticky drawings or books with dragons or princesses.

It is surprisingly hard finding books for him. I am beginning to wonder if this is where the idea that boys don't like books comes from - the infant book market is so skewed towards stereotypically girlish books.

(Before I get jumped on: No, I don't believe that boys and girls are different species, no, I don't believe that girls are naturally more imaginative and boys are better at maths. I am beginning to think that little boys on average are more likely to be into trains than little girls, but have no idea how much of that is nurture and how much nature.)

Also, wft is it with farms?

I'd not thought of it before but you are right.

Richard Scarry books tend to be good for that kind of thing, and some of the DK 'things' books like this one can be fun.

Think you are right, however my DS would only ever let me read Thomas books to him. On the plus side, he picked up his colours and numbers pretty quickly from them but a bit of variety might have been nice.

He had a book which showed everything underground, like trains, drains etc. Will try to have a look to see if I can remember the title.

Usborne have some good ones - there's a lift-flap city at night one. First words type books with objects to point at and name and talk about went down well at that age. Ds got into stories age 3.5 or so.

Try The Big Concrete Lorry - says aimed at 3 and up, but the pictures are beautifully detailed, and it sounds exactly the sort of thing he would like.

In fact most of Shirley Hughes' books hit that 'everyday' spot perfectly - particularly the Tales of Trotter Street series, but also the Alfie and Annie Rose books, Moving Molly etc.

There are three brilliant books that might appeal to your ds.

Beans on toast
Woolly jumper
Sticky jam.

Very detailed, clever books, I'm going to check out Amazon and see if they're still available. My DS (10) loved them and I've kept them for ds2 (2.5)...in fact I must dig them out!

I definitely agree with the realistic pictures for young children, in fact dd liked books with photos even better. I'd definitely agree with looking at Usborne books, there are some rubbish ones, but some are very good. They change all the time, but she had books like this for example

Usborne do some good ones

1001 things to spot
Big puzzle book
See inside e.g. Trains

There is a great German series if that's any use - by Ravensburger called "wieso, weshalb, warum?" That is aimed at 2-4 year olds. DS loves them.

Sick of farm books here too!

Can I just mark my place - I have suggestions, but I have to go and do something. Back soon!

Haynes Thomas tank engine manual (they do other children's ones, can't remember what)

I know there is obviously an animal featuring here, but 'The Elephant And The Bad Baby' is very towny.

Thank you all. This is heartening - DS loves the Usborne nighttime book and Richard Scarry and I'm off to try the others.

Thought I'd add a few that have worked for us: Hello London and the bus/taxi books by Marion Billet; Busy Firestation and Busy Builders and Busy Bookshop - last one again by Marion Billet; Tabby McTat (the only Julia Donaldson to work so far - Room on Broom and Gruffalo have been cast aside & Snail and Whale tolerated because of the fire engine page); and Sarah and Duck books.

You could also try the Little Red Train series of books. Very detailed pictures, although some are of countryside and farm animals as well, there are quite a few town pictures. Faster, Faster is especially good for town scenes.

It does include animals (well, a bird!), but he might like the Duck in a Truck books.

My DS is also 2. His favourite books at the moment are:

Bob the builder books
Fireman Sam books
Am old ladybird book called 'things that go'
And children's picture encyclopedias. Lots of realistic pictures which we look at and chat about.

Jakki Wood - A Hole in the Road and Bumper to Bumper. Realistic drawings of vehicles.
Sharon Rentta - A day with the Animal Builders, A day with the animal firefighters - only about animals in the same sense that Richard Scarry is about animals
Tor Freeman - The Toucan Brothers. Ditto - the toucan brothers actually run a plumbing business in a busy town.

Have a look at The High Street by Alice Melvin - lots of detail there.

Susan Steggall- The Diggers are coming- much loved by my ds, construction site with little parts of (her fab collage) pictures to spot (dog walker, mum with pram, etc etc)

we have Busy Boats and Rattle and Rap (train journey) too

Margaret Mayo has written some lovely rhyming books with big, bright pictures. The series is "Awesome Engines" and there are titles like "Dig, dig, digging" and "Emergency!"