Toot Toot Zoom! by Phyllis Root and Matthew Cordell

Toot Toot Zoom! by Phyllis Root and Matthew Cordell
Buy Toot Toot Zoom! by Phyllis Root and Matthew Cordell at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
Summary: A gentle tale of Pierre looking for friendship and finding it was under his nose all along. It doesn't quite click well enough to make it a firm favourite, but it's still a pleasant enough read.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 40	Date: July 2009
Publisher: Candlewick
ISBN: 978-0763634520
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Pierre is feeling lonely, so he hops in his little red car and decides to drive to the other side of the mountain in search of a friend. Along the way, he meets Goat, Sheep and Bear, who join him on his adventure. As you might expect, Pierre discovers that friendship was under his nose all along.

Toot Toot Zoom! is a sweet tale of friendship. You know exactly what's going to happen, but it's a pleasant story that will put a smile on your face. All children will love joining in with the tooting and zooming noises as the little red car zips around. There's more text than in the average picture book, but I'm not sure if the slightly older target audience will find the gentle predictability quite as engaging as younger readers would.

Matthew Cordell's illustrations have an interesting cartoon style, but they don't get an opportunity to shine. Most of the time, the animals are in a small car against a backdrop of a large mountain. Other than a couple of pages at the end, you don't really get a feel for the individual characters. It's by no means bad, and it's as much a criticism of the story (they're just in the car most of the time), but it's doesn't all click together as well as you'd hope. Pierre seems like he'd be worth getting to know a bit better.

There are certainly children who will enjoy Toot Toot Zoom! - particularly those who are wanting longer stories than beginner picture books, but haven't yet moved on to learning to read themselves. Anyone who enjoys making car noises (and that's all of us) will find enough to keep us entertained, but it's probably a book to pick up in the library, rather than add to your heaving bookshelves.

Thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.

Slightly older readers will enjoy another tale of mountain-based friendship in The Twin Giants: A Love Story by Dick King-Smith. If hopping into a car and driving around is your thing, then check out Driving Down To Grandma's by Ian Whybrow.

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