Trite and self-serving as it was, comedian Marin’s first literary effort for young readers, Cheech the School Bus Driver (2007), at least carried a worthy Lesson; this sequel promotes winning through cheating. When his young passengers convert his school bus into a motorboat in order to race the (unmotorized) sailboat of classmate Vanessa, he eagerly joins in the fun. A sloshy ride and many encounters with sea life later, Cheech sees that the competitors are about to pull into the lead, and so snaps out the bus’s retractable “STOP” sign—which, of course, prevents Vanessa and crew from passing. Vanessa graciously concedes: “When I grow up, I want to be a bus driver just so I can have one of those stop signs. Then I’ll win all the races!” Putting the celebrity narrator, mouth agape beneath a bushy mustache, at the visual center of most scenes, Ramírez gives his cartoon figures oversized heads and eyes, along with a drastically limited range of expressions. The winning blurb photo’s not going to be enough to sell this. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-113206-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Young trainiacs will definitely “jingle the brass” (as in: ring the bell) at this lingo-heavy trip into railroading’s past. Gabbing away, a veteran engineer takes a lad in tow for a freight run aboard a steam-driven “hog,” to watch the “ash-cat” shovel “black diamonds,” roar past gandy-dancers repairing tracks, pull over to let a passenger train by—“Oooh-wee! Look at all that varnish speedin’ by. If you were on the plush, you could sleep in the snoozer and put on the nosebag in the diner”—flash rods up hills and through a tunnel, then part company at journey’s end for a deadhead run back. Chesworth sets the journey in pre-diesel years, when there were still cabooses for cowboys to ride in and railroad “bulls” lie in wait to eject hoboes. His watercolors are loosely drawn, but the details—with the help of a discreet label or two—are easy to make out. Oddly, there’s no whistle-blowing on the way, but that’s no reason not to step aboard. Newman defines all the argot so adroitly in context that the closing glossary is superfluous. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-374-33679-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2004
Two siblings travel from a high mountaintop to the sea’s deeps, from a circus to deep space, in this tongue-in-cheek tribute to little sisters, and to red VW minibuses, everywhere. Self-absorbed big sister Patty drives and narrates, bossily directing little sister to stay inside and out of danger at each stop, while she charges off to fight a fire, join the clowns, and generally have all the fun. But the illustrations, which feature pop-eyed, smiling cartoon figures and big-sister-style labels (“funniest clown!” next to “not so funny clown” for instance) tell a different tale, as little sister silently dances atop a spouting whale, diverts an oncoming meteor, and, in clown makeup, hefts a big cream pie. In the final scene, the sisters’ blocky conveyance turns out to be up on cinderblocks—but that makes its travels no less exciting, nor less hilarious the disconnect between the pictures and big sister’s slanted version of events. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 8, 2005
ISBN: 0-375-82939-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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