Vroom, Chugga, Vroom-Vroom

by Anne Miranda, David Murphy

Rhyming verse and brilliantly colored computer art teach children to identify numbers from one to twenty while following the story of twenty cars that start a race but one by one fall out until one car is declared the winner.

Genres: Childrens, Transport, Picture Books, Number, Cars

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 13, 1998

About the author

I am a freelance writer of books and educational materials for very young children. I'm represented by Ron Zollshan at Kirchoff/Wohlberg in Ct.

I have been published by: Addison-Wesley, Boyds Mill Press, Bradbury Press, Bricks (Korea) BridgeWater Books, Bt Bound, EP Dutton, Harcourt Brace & Company, Hampton-Brown, Heinemann (Fauntas & Pinnell) Holt, Houghton Mifflin, Hyperion, Joy Street Books, Laidlaw, Little Brown, LB Kids, Macmillan McGraw-Hill, McGraw Hill School Division, Modern Curriculum Press, Newbridge Educational Publishing, Nutmeg Media, Options Publishing, Perfection Learning, Scholastic, Scott Foresman, Silver Burdett and Ginn, Simon & Schuster, Steck-Vaughn, Troll Medallion, Turtle Books, Turtleback Books, The Rowland Reading Foundation, Time Life Books for Children, Voyager, and William H Sadlier Inc.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have seen criticism of this book claiming it's not a good "counting book." In fact it is not a counting book at all, and it never claims to be! It does claim to be a number identification book, which it isn't at all either! In fact it is a numeral identification book. I hope to write about the distinction on my blog soon.

In any case this is a very good, fast paced book. I recommend memorizing the text and the positions of the cars on each page so that you can race through the book, screaming the story as quickly as you can and pointing to the cars as they are named. Just be careful not to rip the pages!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for little race car fans, this one works on number recognition. Rhyming text and onomatopoeia - plenty of vrooms and zooms - work for phonological/phonemic awareness. Cute to pair with "The Racecar Alphabet" by Brian Floca. Fun to make 20 cars from paper (or recycle old Matchbox cars!) for the kids to line up and remove from the race track to follow the story.

[Jessica Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of counting and number recognition! Older preschoolers and kindergarten children would benefit from this story. It is full of text and twists and turns; so younger children may have difficulties comprehending. Fun book for enforcing counting and number recognition.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for number identification and I like that it isn't another "counting book"

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

there is also the racethat takes away numbers which would be wonderful with a feltset
Race cars numbered from one to twenty battle to the finish line to win the golden cup.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew two pages into this book it wasn't going to be a favorite of mine and that I would be reading it at least 20 times - 20 is my max. Or something like 20. My son's face lit up. I am not a grammarian but the rhymes just seem wrong and correctable. I'm probably just cranky about another car book after reading the world's dumbest car book full of Formula 1 propaganda - which was unfortunately in Spanish and I couldn't find on here to skewer it. Kids will like it but there's more enjoyable books (for me)that teach a kid to count to 20. School recommended.