It has trucks. It has animal sounds. The villain learns a lesson about the importance of strong community ties. What more could you possibly want?

KID VERDICT (18m-4y): Our youngest adores this book and forced us to read it to him 3-6 times in a row every single night for months. Our eldest never got quite as into it but it's still well liked and I can usually sell him on this one if he's feeling indecisive. He learned the phrase "muck and mire" from it. He spent several weeks accusatorially telling me the toad was a frog, and was unswayed by my claim that it needed to rhyme with "road".