A Fun Return Of The Flying Car
By Frank Cottrell Boyce, Illustrated by Joe Berger
Candlewick Press, $15.99, 192 pages
The Tooting family has had an unexpected turn of bad luck: Tom Tooting, father of the brood, has just been fired from his job for having fingers that are too large to make small parts. Bored and out of sorts, he turns to home improvement projects, which are total disasters. The family’s luck changes again when they find an old camper van, on which Tom and his son Jem get working. To their delight they uncover a secret of the van – it has wings! The family sets off across the world for a fantastic adventure that not even they could have imagined.
Sequels written by new writers tend to be fairly hit and miss (and, frankly, usually miss), but this one wouldn’t disappoint the readers. In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again they would be delighted by a fun reappearance of the car from the original book by Ian Fleming. This book and its characters, especially of the older children, Jem and Lucy, are nicely written. The funny illustrations throughout the book go well with the story. It’s also not necessary to have read the original book to enjoy this one.
Reviewed by Barbara Cothern
[amazon asin=0763659576&text=Buy On Amazon&template=carousel]