The Books

My First Car Was Red

by Peter Schossow

One Potato Review

Let the good times roll. A boy receives a rusty old pedal car as a surprise, restores it (with the help of his grandfather, who gracefully remains out of view), enrolls in driving school, then takes along his little brother for an improvisatory joy ride which begins with provoking angry wasps and industrious girls scouts. There’s also a cliff along the way, and irresistible downhills, bats, tunnels, wood fairies, and bio-swine, this being a German production, with random, wonky references to keep us on our toes. One quibble: the street signs here announcing every twist and speed bump are arguably overkill, and distracting – they look like stickers from an entirely different book - since there’s always so much ahead of us on this road that we dare not risk averting our eyes.