Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again [Hardcover]

Frank Cottrell Boyce (Author), Joe Berger (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: March 13, 2012 | Age Range: 9 and up | Series: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Lexile Measure: 710L (What's this?)

Buckle your seatbelt for the first-ever follow up to Ian Fleming's only children's story.

When the Tooting family finds an old engine and fits it to their camper van, they have no idea what kind of adventure lies ahead. The engine used to belong to an extraordinary car . . . and it wants its bodywork back! But as the Tootings hurtle across the world rebuilding the original Chitty, a sinister baddie is on their trail — one who will stop at nothing to get the magnificent car for himself.

Fueled by wry humor , this much-anticipated sequel to the children’s classic by Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond — fe aturing a contemporary family and a camper van with a mind of its own — is driven by best-selling, award-winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce and revved up by Joe Berger’s black-and-white illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month for Kids, March 2012: “Tooting family, we are ready to go. The word today is adventure.” In a follow-up every bit as original as the book that inspired it, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again follows the Tooting family on a wild ride from the heights of Paris to the sands of Egypt. Best-selling author Frank Cottrell Boyce has created a funny modern family on the kind of road trip that can only come from a 1966 camper van with a mind of its own and the engine of a long lost racecar. From father-son bonding over mysterious junkyard treasure, to hair-raising escapes, and pancake stands in the desert--there is something here for most every reader. A perfect book for family time or for middle grade readers to enjoy on their own, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again deserves a place of honor alongside Ian Fleming’s children’s book classic. --Seira Wilson

Review

Any sequel worth the name would require plenty of crackpot humor and absurd villains and a dose of magical realism, all of which happily burst from the pages of CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG FLIES AGAIN, a novel for 9- to 12-year-olds that puts the famous racing car in a modern setting… A jolly good ride.
—Wall Street Journal

Ian Fleming’s heirs, who have commissioned numerous James Bond sequels, turned to Boyce to continue Fleming’s 1964 story CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG: THE MAGICAL CAR, and Boyce delivers... Berger adds comical artwork—he even sneaks in a diagram of Bond’s Aston Martin—creating a Chitty that any kid would be thrilled to own. This first volume in a planned trilogy is hilarious and endlessly entertaining.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Although the story is inventive and picturesque, with billionaire crooks, a visit to Madagascar, and a guest appearance on a French reality show called Car Stupide, most of the humor in this very funny novel is a result of the family’s interactions with one another. Berger’s lively cartoon illustrations depict each phase of Chitty’s reincarnation in loving detail and bring the resourceful Tootings to life... A witty sequel.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

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Product Details

• Age Range: 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (March 13, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780763659578
• ISBN-13: 978-0763659578
• ASIN: 0763659576
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #497,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Chitty Sequel Designed to Race with Kids and Adults Who Love Them July 24, 2012

By David Crumm TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

As a journalist, I'm fascinated with 20th century history and I was hooked on this officially commissioned sequel to Ian Fleming's classic children's story the moment I discovered all the careful attention to details about Count Louis Zborowski. If you have your well-thumbed original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from half a century ago still on the shelf, pull it down and you will find a credit to Zborowski in that book, too. But that one reference in the original was precious little credit for a very real, if tragic, figure who wound up giving the world so much fun and fanciful dreaming (with Fleming's help). Zborowski was born in 1895 as one of the heirs to the Astor fortune and, before he hit a tree and ended his life at age 29, he had international success on the racing circuit by building racecars around airplane engines. He liked to call his creations Chitty Bang Bang (with just one Chitty in the name; Fleming added the poetic symmetry). On this side of the Atlantic, Zborowski competed in the 1923 Indianapolis 500. As a little boy, Fleming once saw the dashing Zborowski race at Brooklands, which itself is packed with racing and aeronautical history. That's why Fleming centered the tales he originally told to his own son around his own indelible childhood image.

The point is: Ian Fleming, throughout his life, had lots of fun connecting all sorts of dots in his fiction. He was a famous journalist himself, chiefly as what we would call the foreign editor of The Sunday Times in London. He liked to connect the dots for adult readers, once assembling an array of Britain's top writers to produce an entire book about the famous Seven Deadly Sins, called simply The Seven Deadly Sins. As Fleming scholar Dr. Benjamin Pratt points out in Ian Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins and 007's Moral Compass, Fleming went on to argue that the Post-WWII world actually was threatened by seven even deadlier sins. As Pratt lays out in his book, Fleming explored these new sins in the original James Bond novels.

What's the point of all of this? Parents and grandparents buy children's books because they hope that kids will enjoy them. But the truth is: Kids tend to love best the books that are an interaction with those who love them. We remember best the children's books we enjoyed with Mom, Dad or grandparents, right? And, in this case, if you are skeptical of this way-late-in-the-game sequel to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I can tell you there is fun for all ages in this book. All those readers who have enjoyed the fictional connecting of mysterious dots in The DaVinci Code, or theatergoers who enjoyed the National Treasure thrillers with Nicolas Cage, pay attention. No, this isn't a tale lost in endless historical trivia. But there is much for even adults to enjoy in this book--lots of references to Zborowski, the Sphinx and world travel.

We know we're in for a ride when, in the opening pages, young Lucy declares that she's now old enough to spend most of her time locked away in her bedroom, a claim heard by all too many parents, these days. Instead, Dad says, "Go and get that map of the world from your bedroom wall." And, soon, with the aid of a magical successor to the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the family is up and away!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Captures the Magic of the Original May 1, 2012

By Nicola Manning TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Reason for Reading: I love Fleming's original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang book and have read it several times. as a kid and as read-alouds to my own kids. It's always been a favourite. I've never been much of a fan of the movie, though, probably because of the drastic changes to plot. I don't usually read these kind of sequels to classic books but this was commissioned by the Fleming estate and Fleming did only write the one book, so I decided to try this and see if it recaptured the magic of the original.

It certainly did! I was particularly amused throughout the book.Mr. Boyce has done a very good job of maintaining the voice and atmosphere of the original while making the story completely his own. This story takes place in modern times and involves the putting back together of the original Chitty car, which all starts with the Tootings family finding the engine and installing it in their Camping Van. At this point, Chitty is able to take over the van and drives (or flies) the van all over the world (namely 'Paris, Cairo and below the ocean.) The book is also very British, with spellings, word usage, slangs and humour. A delightful little story which has a bit of a slow beginning but gets better and better until the wonderful ending, which leaves us expecting a sequel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the Original!!! April 6, 2012

By NC

Format:Hardcover

This book is great! Better even than the original! Terrific adventure and terrible suspense. And most important lots of laughs. Delightful illustrations with a multiracial family. This is a must read. I will buy multiple copies for my library so that everyone will get a chance to read it.