Night Driving [Paperback]

John Coy (Author), Peter McCarty (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001 | Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

A warm-hearted portrait of a simple event that encapsulates the bond between a father and a son.

This warm and thoughtful story about a father and son on an all-night drive to the mountains is just right for Father's Day.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The luminous pencil drawings of Peter McCarty that illustrate Night Driving capture the simple, memorable story of a young boy's nighttime car ride with Dad. Cruising rural highways, watching the stars, and listening to a ball game on the radio on the way to the mountains for a camping trip--this is the stuff of permanent childhood memories. John Coy's prose captures the events and feeling of that trip in a subtle, beautiful style. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Mood replaces plot in Coy's debut book, which describes a father and son's all-night road trip in the '50s. Action is spare and archetypal: they see a deer, fix a flat, stop for breakfast at a diner. The author establishes the sweetness of the father/son relationship, but doesn't offer much meat in his storytelling. McCarty's (Frozen Man) soft pencil illustrations look like black-and-white photos blurred and bleached by the passage of time; even so, they seem to glow with the refracted beams from the car's headlights. There is a quiet, insistent power to the art, but the sensibility is almost implacably adult. Kids will likely be frustrated by the limited ability of black-and-white illustrations to represent such references as the sun setting "in a mix of orange and pink." While this treatment?and this topic?may nourish the nostalgia of parents, the primary audience may be asking, "Are we there yet?" long before the end of the drive. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805067086
• ISBN-13: 978-0805067088
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.8 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi, I'm the author of the picture books Night Driving, Strong to the Hoop, Vroomaloom Zoom, Two Old Potatoes and Me, and Around the World. Strong to the Hoop is also available in Spanish as Directo Al Aro and Two Old Potatoes and Me is available in Chinese.

I am a member of the NBA Reading All-Star Team as part of the Read to Achieve program. Crackback, my first young adult novel, is about high school football and my second, Box Out, is about high school basketball.

All four books in the 4 for 4 middle-grade series are now available: Top of the Order, Eyes on the Goal, Love of the Game, and Take Your Best Shot. The books follow four friends who love sports as they navigate the changes between elementary school and middle school with plenty of surprises.

I am currently working on a new YA novel and several picture books. I live in Minneapolis and visit schools nationally and internationally.

Check out www.johncoy.com for more information, and yes, it's fine to use the material for author studies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Road Trip: Getting There IS the Fun, December 28, 1999

By 

Carrie Mercer (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Driving (Hardcover)

"Are we almost there?" asks the child-narrator on the first page. "Oh no, it's a long way. We'll do some night driving," says Dad. In John Coy's first picture book, we journey along with a father and son as they make their way to the mountains for the boy's first camping trip. As the hours pass, they find plenty to do together: listen to baseball games on the radio, sing cowboy songs ,watch for deer munching grass at the side of the road. When the car gets a flat tire, there is time to see, away from the lights of the city, a sky thick with stars. Although Peter McCarty has previously illustrated children's books (Mary on Horseback, most recently), this is his first picture book. His soft charcoal portraits of father and son work well with Coy's spare text. He magically transforms white space into cool moonlight-reflecting off Dad's baseball cap as he leans against the car watching his son, pooling in the prairie grass, and cocooning the car as it glides through the darkness. "Making good time" was a phrase my father liked to use when we took road trips-he meant we were getting there as fast as humanly possible with emergency stops only and no dawdling. But as Night Driving gently reminds us, good time is always passing. We can either kill it, or spend it like a jar of saved-up pennies.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Escape with your child into Night Driving, March 20, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Night Driving (Hardcover)

This book is one of the few truley magical books. There is nothing better than to lie in bed reading this book to my 7-year old son. The book could almost be thought of as two books - the text and the pictures. You can imagine everything by the very descriptive text - it takes you on the journey of father and son as they travel "to the mountains". The text is even paced and allows you (and your son) to travel along with them. The pencil drawings are of a quality not usually found in children's books. Just take a look at the pictures without the words and the same magical feeling comes to you. This is probably a book for fathers and sons but anyone who is interested in quality children's books will love this one. Highest recomendation.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars poetic remembrance of past images, April 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Night Driving (Hardcover)

wow, never thought of reading children books, but this one has me giving a second thought. The radio station playing, trucks zipping by, the diner open all night, and the faded gray illustrations, all make this illustrated book great for adults alike.