Reddit reviews Car: The Definitive Visual History of the Automobile

It's hard to fit all that into one book, or even ten books. There's a staggering amount of technology packed into cars. The amount of history is tremendous too, just check out the amount of American automobile manufacturers that no longer exist. So the best I can do is two books.

Car: The Definitive Visual History of the Automobile



Automotive Technology

My son is 4.5 and car obsessed too! At around 2 my son and my husband started walking to the park almost every night and I guess my husband was pointing out makes and models to my son. A few weeks later he started talking to me about it and we realized he was able to identify tons of cars by makes and models. For a long time he was totally obsessed with finding out the name of every car he could see, although it's toned down a lot (especially around me because I just can't maintain the interest). But yes, a ton of our play is centered around cars. Cars go in the bathtub, play dough gets used to build roads and 'customize' the tops of cars, the cash register is used to pay for cars at the car dealership, etc.. He does also enjoy cartoons and such but he likes Top Gear and auto repair shows as well. He loves to collect the brochures at the state fair and the Dallas car show we go to each year, and this is his favorite bedtime book far and away. I was kind of worried about autism when he was in his 2's because he was so so obsessed with identifying the cars, but by 3 he had loosened up so much that I don't worry about it any more. It's also been a great venue to learning about numbers, colors, simple math, etc etc. Although I personally am pretty tired of cars, I have to admit.

I do think that having more time in pre-school (through a church, which is way cheaper than daycares around here) and around other kids has expanded his interests. He has a few buddies that will play cars but none of them are obsessed like he is, so he's had to 'branch out' a bit which I think was a good thing. He comes home talking about different sorts of games he's played and he tries them out. I guess if I have any advice, it might be to get him a regular playgroup somehow? Either school or a class that has some open-ended playtime? Or a meet up group? Even just joining a gym with childcare and going at the same time every day might work. If he's a bit on the slow-to-warmup side, he might need to see some familiar faces before he starts to engage. Or are you very close to any of the cousins? Basically I don't think you should discourage the cars exactly, but maybe create some opportunities for some new topics to be introduced when he's ready.

Of our friends, I don't really know any others that have the same over-riding interest for such a long time, but I don't think it's necessarily a problem. And at least we know there are a few other kids like this! :)