Peter Stein; Illustrated by Bob Staake
Bob Staake illustrations are certainly recognizable, aren't they? I don't mean that in a ho, hum, it's Bob Staake again way. More like ... whee! Bob's back! He has a way of interjecting humor into his illustrations that makes them so appealing.
The writing reminds me of One Fish, Two Fish by Dr. Suess, but on a vehicular level. Rusty, dusty, hunk-of-junk car. Stinky, yucky, smells-like-a-skunk car. A big part of the fun is matching up the cars with their descriptions. Of course, the Noah's Ark car was easy to pick out (the elephants gave it away) but we had to take a closer look to distinguish the jazz car and the song car from the sing-along car.
We loved this book because of the great variety. There isn't an ordinary vehicle in the bunch. Shiny black streets swoop and stretch across the pages, dotted with brightly colored cars, trucks and vans. We noted one large skyscraper car, a yellow finned car with a grinning crocodile behind the wheel, an electric car dragging along the plug, and a bed car with the driver snoozing away. The drivers (various animals and people of all shapes, sizes and temperaments), contents, and scenery are every bit as captivating as the cars.
Once we finished reading this through once, we had the best time flipping back through the pages and choosing our favorites. Clever, cute, and colorful .... this is the car book to have.
Review copy provided by Candlewick Press.
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