Otto Undercover #1: Born to Drive [Paperback]

Rhea Perlman (Author), Dan Santat (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005 | Age Level: 9 and up | Series: Otto Undercover (Book 1)

Stuff in this book:

A kid racecar driver
He's also an inventor and a very bad singer

Two Nutty Aunts

A Remote Control Pocket Watch

A Racecar named Racecar

Dumb bad guys

$1 million

a lousy creep

backward words

more than 14 laughs

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the launch title of the Otto Undercover series, Perlman's mostly feeble stabs at humor will likely elicit fewer laughs than her deftly delivered comedic performances as an actress. In the driver's seat is Otto Pillip, who has built his own racecar, the fastest on the planet, which, given his penchant for palindromes, he has named Racecar. Since his parents left years ago (allegedly on an expedition to discover the eighth continent), Otto has lived with his two aunts, who helped him get his driver's license (which entailed passing a 30-page written test) and wrote a note "to get him out of school for the rest of his life." The villains here are two bumbling blockheads who "were both in third grade for eight years, till they got kicked out of school for setting fire to the teacher." Determined to win the $1 million first-place prize in a big road race, this dastardly duo steals Racecar, leaving a look-alike in its place. Luckily, Otto has some inventions up his sleeve and a happy ending is in store. Santat's brash cartoons add to the inanity of this slim caper, which contains numerous palindromes, anagrams and backward words, decoded in the pages' margins.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6–Otto Pillip loves palindromes, which isn't surprising, given his name. Although he's only 11, he invents all kinds of incredible devices and drives a race car named Racecar. Having lost his parents mysteriously as a baby, he lives with his two peculiar aunts, FiFi and FooFoo. Otto enters a race with a one-million-dollar purse, but, the night before the event, Racecar is stolen by two exceptionally obtuse bad guys. They don't realize that Otto has loaded his car with an invention to defeat every deception imaginable. Perlman (yes, the comic actress of Cheers fame) breaks the novel into tiny, easy-to-digest bits (some of the 36 chapters are only a few words long), which offers the possibility of a fun read, especially for hard-to-motivate readers. Unfortunately, the humor, as well as the story, is mostly lame and repetitious, and Santat's cartoon illustrations add little to the mix. In the second book, Otto receives a secret message implying that if he travels to the Grand Canyon, he might obtain a clue to the whereabouts of his missing parents, so he and his aunts head west. Much silliness ensues involving a crook in a dress, aunts disguised as uncles, 10,000 sticks of dynamite, and a pet cockroach. Like the first novel, Canyon Catastrophe seems designed for reluctant readers, but the gags tend to repeat themselves, the humor involving palindromes and anagrams gets old fast, and the art is only adequate.–Walter Minkel, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060754958
• ISBN-13: 978-0060754952
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,312,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Beginning "Chapter Book" Readers, January 6, 2006

By 

Freya Reisman (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Otto Undercover #1: Born to Drive (Hardcover)

I am a veteran learning disability specialist with L.A.U.S.D. and I picked up "Otto Undercover" to read aloud to my students. They loved the silly characters, imaginative adventures that Otto experiences, and the palindromes and other word puzzles. I am always looking for high interest books with a reasonable readability level for my students and this book has inspired some of my most reluctant readers with chapters that contain only one word in addition to chapters that are pages long. They like saying they have already read one, two, or three chapters today. I highly recommend this book for beginning independent readers and am very glad that it is a series so my students will have future books to look forward to.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun AND Games!, January 4, 2006

By 

Carol Banever - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Otto Undercover #1: Born to Drive (Paperback)

Otto Pillip (palindrome extraordinaire) is a madcap, zany adventure full of funny and colorful characters, plot twists that keep you guessing, and grammatical puzzles which make reading this book a fast-paced and exciting interactive experience. Rhea Perlman gives both kids and grown-ups a great ride!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally cool!, January 5, 2006

By 

Diane Demeter - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Otto Undercover #1: Born to Drive (Hardcover)

A wild race with an amazing racecar; wonderful invention of a boy hero and his two aunties, dumb villains, surprising twists, funny made-up words,anagrams and palindromes.... I could not put it down because it was so "hip," and hilarious and I wanted to KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! The illustrations really give the humorous, innocent and madcap flavor of the book. This series is going to be fantastic!