My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow

My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow
Buy My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
Summary: A quirky book that doesn't always hit the mark, but still has plenty of charm. It's certainly worth a look, particularly for parents of car-mad children who want something a bit more interesting than the usual parade of vehicles.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 40	Date: August 2011
Publisher: Gecko Press
ISBN: 978-1877467684
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Original title: Mein erstes Auto war rot, by Peter Schössow.

A young boy receives a pedal car from his grandpa, but it's old, rusty and needs work. They tinker with it, do it up, and paint it bright red. Grandpa gives the young boy instructions on how to use it, then the boy and his brother, Cornelius, go off for an adventure in the car. They careen round corners, barrage through wasp nests, duck low branches in the forest, and nearly go flying off a cliff, before crashing into a creek and pushing the car back home, exhausted.

My First Car Was Red is packed with excitement and adventure. It's a must for any youngster who loves vehicles. Beyond that, there's also plenty of charm and whimsy. This is a picture book which includes, in passing, the line We took a right at Granny Nola's. (We haven't talked to her since Mum's birthday. I don't know why). That's exactly the sort of thing that children pick up on, accept and acknowledge. There are a couple of other similar throwaway lines that flesh out the characters beyond most other picture books, and do much to add to the overall quality.

Written in a very immediate first person style, My First Car Was Red is different to many other books of its ilk. The style takes a little getting used to at first, but the young audience are well rewarded when they make the effort. Some of the turns of phrase are a little unusual, which I suspect may have worked better in the original German. As it's a quirky book anyway, it all makes for a pleasurable whole.

Peter Schössow's illustrations are bold and exciting, creating a great sense of movement and adventure. Every page has plenty going on, for children to pore over and giggle at. I really liked the touch of having road signs accompanying sections of text - it fuels the sense that this is a car book for car-hungry kids. The colour palette is an interesting choice: it tends to be a mix of autumnal browns and greens, whereas most picture books are much brighter. For the most part, it adds to the charm of the book, but when we're introduced to the gleaming red car, I did find myself thinking it was just a cleaner brown than the car's rusty version.

It's an unusual book in many ways, which is both its strength and its weakness. Not every unusual aspect hits the mark, but those that do hit it brilliantly. It's certainly worth a look, particularly for parents of car-mad children who want something a bit more interesting than the usual parade of vehicles.

My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.

If you're looking for another picture book not originally written in English, look no further than I Really Want To Eat A Child by Sylviane Donnio and Dorothee de Monfreid. For more vehicular fun, check out The Wheels on the Bus by Britta Teckentrup, Toot Toot Zoom! by Phyllis Root and Matthew Cordell, Driving Down To Grandma's by Ian Whybrow and Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root.

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You can read more book reviews or buy My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow at Amazon.com.

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