Cars Galore [Hardcover]

Peter Stein (Author), Bob Staake (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: March 22, 2011 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years

Buckle up for an exuberant ride humming with energetic rhymes and whimsical, retro art from a masterful team.

Black car, green car,
nice car, mean car.
Near car, far car.
Whoa! Bizarre car!

Ready to hit the road? Gear up for a nonstop parade of shapes, sizes, sounds, and even smells in a wild array of cars packed with big personalities, awesome features, and eccentric passengers. Driven by Peter Stein’s bouncing verse, Bob Staake’s high-powered artwork merges vibrant color and crisp, dynamic design with humor, warmth, and whimsy. This rousing excursion is sure to thrill all fans of things that go, as well as aficionados of the illustrator’s signature style.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-Rhythmic verse and lively illustrations showcase autos of every color, size, style, and speed. "Cars and cars and/ yet still MORE cars!/Millions, billions, cars-GALORE cars!" Just when readers think there couldn't be any more variations, the text revs up with a new characteristic or action. The rhyme, similar to Patricia Hubbell's Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming! (Marshall Cavendish, 2006), cruises smoothly for the most part, changing from slow to fast lane with only a few bumps. The illustrator's familiar cartoon style easily matches the text. Crisp, clean lines and bright colors pop against the white background, while black traffic-filled roads crisscross and loop around the pages. Readers will eagerly search for and find every vehicle mentioned. Car-crazy kids will appreciate both the rhyme and the pictures.-Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About the Author

Peter Stein has been a highly successful writer, editor, designer, and art director for more than twenty years. He is the author of seven gift books, including Age Is Nothing, Attitude Is Everything and Fine Friends: A Little Book About You and Me. He lives in Petaluma, California.

Bob Staake has authored and/or illustrated more than forty-two books, including The Red Lemon, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year. His work has graced the cover of The New Yorker a dozen times, and his November 17, 2008 Barack Obama victory cover was named Best Magazine Cover of the Year by Time magazine. He lives on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (March 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763647438
• ISBN-13: 978-0763647438
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 0.4 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Stein has been an award-winning writer in the social expression industry for over 20 years and has written numerous gift books, including Age Is Nothing, Attitude Is Everything and the children's book Cars Galore. He is the managing editor at Papyrus and lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Total crowd-pleaser for little folks May 16, 2011

By Throttlebottom

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I heard the author read this from the stage of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books a few weeks ago. It was a fabulous presentation and I bought the book on the spot for my daughter. Plus I'm getting copies for all my friends' kids. It's just an irresistible book. The writing is jaunty and really fun. The illustrations are priceless, very unique and almost retro. If you buy it, get used to reading it, because it's definitely one of those books that kids (particularly boys) latch on to and want to hear again and again. At the festival they were talking about a follow-up called "Bugs Galore." I don't see it on Amazon yet. But I'm very psyched. Hopefully this will be turned into a series. It DEFINITELY deserves to be.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is THE car book to have. Cars Galore, indeed! April 16, 2011

By FIRR-Kids!

Format:Hardcover

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. As always, Bob Staake illustrations are full of fun and interjected with humor.

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My son LOVES Cars Galore! April 15, 2011

By Lynn

Format:Hardcover

I have a very squrimy 15 month old and I was surprised that he sat quietly through this whole book cover to cover. He loved it! When we were done reading it the first time he carried it around with him for the next ten minutes. The pictures are fun and lively and the prose is very snappy and engaging. We read Cars Galore over and over again pointing to all of the different types of cars. I highly recommend to other moms with car-loving-squirmy-little-boys.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars cute! December 9, 2012

By Audrey

Format:Board book|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this for my pregnant sister. The book is cute, and I am sure young boys will enjoy seeing all the different types of cars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book -- great fun. November 21, 2012

By Psyche

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Cars Galore is a really fun read. It is exactly the sort of book I would have chosen for Toddler/Preschooler story time at the library. It reads as if Peter Stein wrote it by reading it out loud to a four-year-old. It is silly, funny and packed with visual words and onomatopoeia. And now I love it even more because I got to use the word "onomatopoeia" in a review.

I love everything about Bob Staake's artwork for this book, from the cover, to the end papers, to every illustration inside. Again, this would be a perfect book for story time, not just because of the text but because illustration stands out and could easily be seen from a distance. It is silly, funny, visually appealing, and if there were a word to describe artwork like "onomatopoeia", I'd use it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars VROOOM! June 13, 2012

By T. L. Dzubak

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have literally read this book 100 times in one week. The cars are so cute and so funny and interesting. My son loves this book (16 months old). Perfect repetetive language for a little one. Expensive, but worth it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun galore! March 23, 2012

By Book Girl

Format:Hardcover

My 22-month-old son LOVES this book. I've noticed he made huge language leaps when we began reading it regularly. He now pages through the book on his own and recites rhymes from almost every page. And I even hear him randomly reciting them when we're out and about. Yesterday on the train, he said "Whoa! Bizarre car!" And two nights ago in the tub, he said,"Cars for racing, cars with might, cars for chasing, hold on tight" but with his cute little toddler mess-ups of course. And when I say one line to him, he follows with the next line. Oh, and I just LOVE that this book has such imaginative images in it. How cute is it to see your little one point out the "scary shark car" or "incomplete car" or "has a cold car" or "jazz car" and get it right every time? I mean, seriously, this is so much better than all those sub-par "blue car" "big car" books out there. CARS GALORE is an instant classic, by far my son's favorite, the illustrations are hilarious.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Teachers and kids love this book! February 12, 2012

By David Gottlieb

Format:Hardcover

As a reading specialist and parent of three boys, I completely recommend this book. What a fun read! My children keep clamoring for me to read this book again and again. When your kids ask you to read a book over and over, it's important that you enjoy it too. The illustrations are fabulous, inviting the kids to discover new details during successive readings. They enjoy the witty verse and crazy car situations. One of their favorites is the rock and roll car.