I’m The Train Driver
I’m The Bin Lorry Driver
David Semple and Katie Woolley
Oxford Children’s Books

Young children have the opportunity to imagine themselves into the driving seat of both a passenger train and a refuse collection lorry as they share these books with an adult either at home or at nursery/preschool.

Having donned the appropriate uniform the train driver climbs into the cab, puts on a seatbelt, checks the controls, starts the engine and is responsible for taking a family to the city for some sightseeing. En route there are stations to stop at to allow more passengers to get aboard, a freight train to negotiate, a tunnel to drive through slowly and carefully,

then the level crossing gates are open so its full speed ahead until the signal controller radios to say ‘switch tracks’ and off you go to the city’s main station where the passengers are eager to get off. Finally, a train driver needs to log the train’s arrival before heading home

The driver of the bin lorry has two other team members who are also responsible for collecting the recycling from all the blue bins on their round and they start work early in the morning while it’s still dark. Having set the route, off they go, the driver taking care to stay within the speed limit. The team works hard all morning,

remembering to log each bin emptied into the hopper on the lorry’s computer screen and totalling up the final number. Then with all the blue bins duly dealt with it’s back through the now busy streets to the tip where the lorry’s contents is emptied onto the ground ready for sorting.

As with others in this series, teamwork is key in the roles presented; and there are lots of opportunities for developing vocabulary and other important early learning skills such as colour, number and shape recognition.