From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–Like Lichtenheld's
Everything I Know about Monsters (S & S, 2002), this pseudo-nonfiction book presents a wealth of made-up stuff. It's chock-full of fun fake facts about automobiles, such as "Red cars are the fastest kind" and horses invented cars (hence the term horsepower). Other sections focus on the history of motor travel (beginning with cavemen putting steering wheels on animals), how cars work ("the transmission…transmits; the suspension…suspends"), and how to be a passenger ("Your next duty is to test the power windows. Down. Up. Down"). The book ends with tips for kids on how to design and draw their own vehicles. The conversational text is plentiful, but is made less intimidating by the plethora of wacky cartoon illustrations. Using ink, colored pencil, gouache, and watercolor, Lichtenheld depicts everything from an ancient Egyptian dune buggy to a "Heli-Hat" to a detailed map of a family road trip. The illustrations and the narrative have just enough body and potty humor to amuse readers but not gross them out. The result is
Mad Magazine, Jr. meets
Auto Repair for Dummies. The mix of madcap illustrations, irreverent text, and kid-friendly humor is sure to attract even the most reluctant readers.–
Catherine Callegari, San Antonio Public Library, TX Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 2-4. Lichtenheld, the author of other witty compendiums such as
Everything I Know about Pirates (2000), takes a similarly wacky approach to cars. Although the book is classified as nonfiction, the author claims expertise on
made-up cars, not real ones, so readers will learn, for instance, that two horses (Winnie and Nay) in Ohio invented the first car in 1904. The section on how a car works reads like a test paper by a student who is totally unprepared, but still game: "Some other car parts you should know about are the transmission, which transmits; the suspension, which suspends; and the pistons, which, well . . . they work real hard too." Just as funny and accessible as the text are the colorful, cartoon-style illustrations with their helpful and amusing labels. Some kids will giggle through the whole book, and few will read it without cracking up at least once or twice. With an eye-catching jacket and a terrific section on how to draw a car, this large-format book has something for everyone (except maybe someone who actually wants to know about cars).
Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
