BOBBY'S GOT A BRAND-NEW CAR

A kid loves his car.

No one bats an eye when Bobby, a white boy with dark hair and eyes, decides to buy a car. He simply goes to the dealership and “spots his dream car: a convertible.” The dealer sells it to him, Bobby paying “with his magic card (the one that pays for everything),” and then he’s off. Illustrations are rendered in a modernist style with bold colors against a muted background, and their matter-of-fact symmetry with the text belies the story’s absurdity as Bobby drives around town, crossing railroad tracks, gassing up at a filling station, picking up his parents from work, and heading home. As Bobby drifts off to sleep, he dreams of, what else? Buying and flying a plane. Unlike many stories that involve children doing grown-up things, there does not seem to be a smidgen of irony to this, nothing to tell readers that this is all taking place in Bobby’s imagination or on the living-room floor. While the story could read as wish fulfillment for car-fascinated kids, it seems in need of exposition to explain how and why Bobby is a driver and how he got that magic card of his.

In need of some fine-tuning.