Ian Fleming’s strong-minded auto takes a new road trip, and if its passengers are largely just along for the ride, it’s still a grand outing.
Powering the decrepit camper van that Mr. Tooting is restoring with a massive engine that he finds in the branches of a tree turns out to be like “putting the heart of a Tyrannosaurus rex into a hamster.” When he, his wife and their children, Lucy, Jeremy (Jem) and little Harry, climb aboard to take a spin, they find themselves not only roaring down back roads at terrifying speeds but soaring off over the Channel. Chitty, it soon becomes clear, has an agenda: It seems that its headlights have been repurposed atop the Eiffel Tower, its wheels are buried near the Sphinx and its body has somehow washed ashore in Madagascar. Along the way, Cottrell Boyce folds in winking references to the 1964 original and its author (including a certain heavily armed Aston Martin DB5 that James Bond fans will recognize). He also trots in strangely familiar would-be carnappers Tiny Jack and his unctuous but deadly Nanny, along with the odd giant squid or horde of poisonous spiders to keep the Tooting children on their toes. The book ends with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang back together, poised for further outings. Berger depicts the Tootings as a biracial family but otherwise adds to the tale’s antique flavor with frequent, retro ink-and-wash drawings. The old racer’s still good for another lap—and maybe more. (afterword). (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5957-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wild ride leaves the Tootings in 1966, carless and in midpredicament. Expect further episodes.
More of a romp through time than a race against it (though a race does figure in), this second authorized sequel sends the reconstructed car with a mind of its own careening from the Cretaceous to the Jazz Age, Venezuela to the Wild West, while folding in references and tributes to Ian Fleming’s classic tale.
The Tooting family—Mum, Dad, Jem, Lucy and Little Harry—is again largely along for the ride, landing in the Cretaceous almost immediately when the car breaks down. The madcap escape from a pack of T. Rex becomes complicated when archvillains Tiny Jack and Nanny phone from the Tooting house far in the future. The race to support them leads to encounters with Counts Basie and Zborowski (the latter a racing enthusiast and the car’s original owner), two 16th-century queens of fabled El Dorado (who sheathe Chitty in gold before switching to a fudge-based economy) and, ultimately, the Potts clan from the original story. Berger festoons margins and full pages with monochrome sketches that nicely capture the helter-skelter pacing of Cottrell Boyce’s round of chases, kidnappings, narrow squeaks and mildly daring references to guns, liquor and “[t]hose leaves that make your head feel funny when you chew them.”
The wild ride leaves the Tootings in 1966, carless and in midpredicament. Expect further episodes. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5982
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A picture-book favorite despite minor flaws? That’s a 10-4, good buddy.
In McCanna and Frawley’s cheery picture-book debut, miniscule vehicles drive into supersized action.
Accompanied by a bouncy rhyme, several brightly colored trucks rumble through the garden: the lead red-and-blue truck, the more feminine purple truck and the gridlock-loathing aqua truck. Though the color palette and cartoon appearance of the nameless vehicles may seem like a carbon copy of Disney’s Cars (2006), illustrator Frawley has included humorous details for each truck, giving them life beyond their big-screen predecessors. For instance, the red-and-blue truck has jaunty eyebrows created from roof lights, the purple truck’s short bursts of steam look like daisies, and the aqua truck’s expressive eyebrows are actually wiper blades. The illustrations help tell a hilarious story, most notably of a traffic jam featuring a frog, slug and worm who are clearly not amused by the crowded garden path. McCanna similarly handles the text well. The rhythmic pattern is clear, most of the rhyme is spot-on—“Teeny tiny tires. With teeny tiny treads. / Leaving teeny tiny trails between the flower beds”—and the story begs to be read aloud to a group. Typical trucker talk is included in the dialogue—“Breaker breaker, Buddy!” “What’s your twenty, Friend?”—and the lingo is explained in a short glossary at the end of the story. Though the premise is amusing, the proportion of the trucks in relation to their surroundings can be a bit inconsistent. Most images depict the trucks, which are “smaller than a dime,” as being only marginally bigger than ants and bees, yet other images portray the trucks as being much larger—almost half as long as a box of animal crackers. Nevertheless, this delightful story will charm truck-loving children.
A picture-book favorite despite minor flaws? That’s a 10-4, good buddy.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989668811
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Bahalia Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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