About the Author

Almost fifty years ago, Ian Fleming, author of James Bond, wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a bedtime story for his son, Caspar. Filling Chitty's tank with his trademark wit, warmth and sense of story, Frank Cottrell Boyce jumps into the driving seat and takes Chitty into the twenty-first century. He is the award-winning author of Millions, Framed and Cosmic. Joe Berger is a prize-winning illustrator and animator. He has been selected as one of the 2011 winners of Booktrust's Best New Illustrators Award. In 2010, Joe was the official illustrator for World Book Day.

Reviews

Boyce's second sequel to Ian Fleming's original novel picks up where the 2012 book left off, with the discovery that the Tooting family's flying car has a highly unusual gear, which allows its occupants to travel back and forth in time. Unfortunately, the "Chronojuster" delivers the Tootings to the Cretaceous period, and at the feet of a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex. Events get increasingly more perilous as mother, father, Lucy, Jem, and Little Harry must repeatedly use their wits to avoid death by anaconda, escape the police in Prohibition-era Manhattan, and rescue their car from the residents of the legendary El Dorado. Ostensibly, Chitty (as the Tootings affectionately call their sentient vehicle) is seeking something-a reunion with Count Zborowski, the car's original owner, or perhaps a second meeting with Commander Pott, the inventor who restored Chitty in Fleming's book-but that quest is not fulfilled in volume two. Indeed, this installment ends with another cliffhanger. Readers are unlikely to mind, though, since life with the Tootings is the wildest Sunday drive imaginable. Ages 9-12. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 4-6-Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is back, traveling through time with the Tootings. They are connected to the present day via a "jelly phone" through which they learn that evil villains have set up shop in their home. Chitty is up to her usual tricks, leading the family through an adventure that flies by at an almost frenetic pace. Readers are slyly fed facts about the times and places the travelers visit, including 1920s New York City and the Amazon. On the adventure to find the Potts, Chitty's first family, they wind up in the mythical city of El Dorado, where, after being dissasembled and reassembled, the people gild Chitty, dubbing her Chitty Chitty Bling Bling. After a brief stint at home to tie up loose plot threads (evil villains included), the story ends with the Tootings stuck in London in 1966, clearly leaving the door open for another installment. Much of the story is told through dialogue. While the action-oriented plot might appeal to reluctant readers, they are likely to find it hard to comprehend who is doing all the talking as the family races through time. Characters and plot points don't feel fully fleshed out, which contributes to the frenzied feel. Fun, but not a core purchase.-Amy Commers, South St. Paul Public Library, MN (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.