Forklift-Themed Children’s Book Brings Home Important Life Lessons

If you work with forklifts and are looking for a holiday gift for children that helps them learn about the type of equipment you use every day on the job, then consider a new children’s book called, “Frankie Forklift and Friends”.

Frankie Forklift is sort of like the Powered Industrial Equipment version of Thomas the Tank Engine. He is a forklift with human-like characteristics who — along with his friends Petee Pallet, Sally Shrinkwrap, Tony Towmotor, and others — introduces children to the world of material handling equipment in a fun and entertaining way.

The characters live in a make-believe warehouse where they have adventures together while learning important lessons along the way.

Life Lessons that Matter

Through Frankie the Forklift’s adventures and his interactions with the other characters, children can learn important life lessons such as asking for help when they need it, listening carefully when asked to do a particular job, and that it’s better to do good work than be the first one finished with a task.

The first book in the series — which revolves around Frankie’s first day at work — is available for sale online now and is expected to be the first in a long series of books chronicling the friendly forklift’s adventures, according to author Frank Clark, who is an executive at an Arkansas-based materials handling company when not writing children’s books.

Inspired by Bedtime Stories

As a 25 year veteran of the materials handling industry, Clark knows a lot about forklifts and other industrial equipment. So it’s not surprising that his experiences influenced the bedtime stories he would tell his young twin boys.

Clark said his stories of Frankie the Forklift and his warehouse pals thrilled and entertained his children. And when his young sons would occasionally visit their father at the warehouse where he worked, they selected one of the forklifts and even named it “Frankie” after their favorite character in their father’s stories.

One night when his sons asked him to read them a book about their favorite talking forklift, Clark was inspired to put his stories down on paper. And “Frankie the Forklift and Friends” was born.

Hoping for a Successful Series

Currently, the book is self-published and is only available online. But Clark said he hopes to attract the attention of a publisher and expand his Frankie the Forklift stories into a series of successful children’s books to be sold in bookstores worldwide.

The materials handling executive turned children’s author said he thinks there is a market for his books because parents are always looking for wholesome, entertaining stories to share with their children.

Plus, with more than 2 million forklift operators and another 20 million people who work around forklifts in warehouses, distribution centers, and factories, there is a built-in audience for his books, which bring the world of materials handling home to children in a delightful way they can understand and appreciate.

Clark said he already has an idea for the second book in the Frankie the Forklift and Friends series. It will be called “Frankie Unloads His First Truck” and will feature Frankie overcoming his fear of trying new things and fear of the dark. The second book also will introduce two new characters: Billy Bob Truck and Rudy Rack.