RATTLETRAP CAR

It takes everything they’ve got to get this family to the lake in their falling-apart car. In fact, without the help of Junie’s beach ball, Jakie’s surf board, and a generous helping of Poppa’s “chocolate marshmallow fudge delight,” they’d probably still be sitting just outside the farmyard. As parts fly off the car, and the bouncing trip is brought to a halt at each juncture, the red-lettered text springs along creating sound effects, rhythm, and movement, “spitter, spatter, sput!” As each part is replaced—a beach ball for a tire, a surfboard for a floor—new sounds accumulate, making the read-aloud extra lively. “Poppa turned the key, brum brum, brum brum. Wappity babbity / lumpety bumpety / clinkety clankety / bing bang pop!” This single-parent family, illustrated in watercolor and pencil, could be the red-haired cousins of the characters in Root and Barton’s last popular collaborative effort What Baby Wants (1998). Full-bleed, double-paged, oversized pictures will project to medium-sized groups and the text will certainly lock in their attention and more than likely their participation. Only outrageously funny and impossible solutions are offered, showing a sweet Dad and his three children cooperating joyfully in every aspect of their adventure. No reality check is needed here, just high spirits and a rollicking good time. (Picture book. 5-7)