If I Built If I Built a Car, (Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly,Rhyming couplets and illustrations in colors as shiny and sleek as the four wheels they celebrate present the musings of a boy growing up in the placid 1950s suburbs. As Jack, his father and the family dog drive by trim lawns and plastic pink flamingos in a red, wood-panelled station wagon (that "is OK," according to Jack, "Nothing great. Nothing grand"), the young hero regales his staid-looking father with a description of the car of his dreams. Next, Jack lies on a shag rug in his bedroom, an issue of Popular Science on the bedside table, as he studies his toy Wienermobile, the inspiration for his own "spectacular car"-which, on the subsequent spread, seems to magically appear in the driveway. From there, the story takes off: Jack gives his amazed father and eager pooch a tour of his vehicle, showing off the "flush fender skirts and retractable wings," enclosed fireplace, swimming pool and snack-bar, and introduces the automated driver, Robert the Robot. The boy then takes his dad for a ride through the neighborhood and onto the lake ("The fenders will float like a catamaran") and underwater ("Just hit submerge!") before heading back to town, where a crowd of neighbors applauds. The finale returns readers to the opening scene, where a smiling Jack proudly tells his father, "If I built a car, that's just what I'd do." Energetic verse and jubilant, action-packed artwork make this tale of a young inventor's fantastic daydream a joy ride. Ages 3-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved