MINI RACER (Picture Book)

by Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Bridget Strevens-Marzo

Bloomsbury USA, 2011

A Book Review by

Violet the Telekinetic Puppy

Ready, set, go! It’s time to read MINI RACER!

MINI RACER is a picture book about a race between lots of animals. Some animals race alone and those animals are a seal and a bear and a mouse and a bulldog and a giraffe and a monkey and a snail. Morzant will like this book because he likes snails. I don’t know why he likes snails but he does.

Some of the animals race as a team. There is a team with three dogs and a team with two cats and a team with four owls and a team with two rabbits and a team with two alligators, except that the team with two alligators might really be a team with two crocodiles.

All the racers have different vehicles and the vehicles are fun to look at. There’s a banana car and a carrot car and a wheelchair with rainbow-colored wheels and a skateboard and a tree car and a car that’s a wedge of cheese and lots of other vehicles. The carrot car is my favorite and the banana car is my other favorite and my other favorite is the car with spots.

The words in the book tell about how the racers race on bumpy roads and on curvy roads and on roads where they get stuck. The racers are going fast, fast, fast the whole time except for when they crash or get stuck or when they stop to rest and eat honey or pizza or a cheese wedge car. But then they start racing again. The book rhymes and when you read the sentences you can feel that the racers are going fast, fast, fast.

The racers want to go, go, go but you need to stop and look, look, look at all the pages because there are lots of things happening on every page and you will want to look at all the things happening because it is fun. You will see spotted dogs in a spotted car and a rabbit getting a band-aid after crashing and bees following the bear’s bee hive vehicle and the cats riding their bike on telephone wires and the mouse eating his cheese wedge car.

First one racer is winning and then another racer is winning but by the end most of the racers are walking or flying because they have crashed and wrecked their vehicles or driven them into a river or eaten them. I have a favorite racer and that racer is really two racers and those two racers are two rabbits in the carrot car. Do the rabbits in their carrot car win? Maybe they do, but maybe they don’t. Do they eat their carrot car? Maybe they do, but maybe they don’t.

I’m not going to tell you who the winner is or if any other racers eat their car. I will just tell you that the winner gets a big trophy. And you don’t have to feel sad for the racers who don’t win because I think they had fun any way except for maybe the giraffe and one of the alligators who might be a crocodile. On the last page when the winner gets a big trophy the giraffe and one of the alligators who might be a crocodile look mad. You know now that the giraffe and alligators don’t win the race but that’s all I’m going to tell you.

Here is a list of who will like this book:

Readers who like to race.

Racers who like read.

Readers who think a car makes a good snack.

Morzant.

Good-bye.