The Love Bug

by Mel Cebulash

Vintage movie tie-in paperback

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult

99 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Mel Cebulash grew up in Union City, NJ where he developed his athletic skills in schoolyard games. Rather than pursue a career in sports, he chose to write about them. Many of his published works, both fiction and non-fiction, reflect his life-long fascination with sports and his special interest in writing for young people.

Reviews

[emily asmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

me when the car was about to commit suicide: 😦😳☹️

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in 6th grade, I won a class contest with a shadowbox representing this book. It was the scene of Herbie jumping the pond in the movie, using a rock, aluminum foil as the water, some moss and ferns, and a Hot Wheels Volkswagen. Pure nostalgia.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very true to the movie. I loved this book as a kid - still love the movie!

[Ben]

When I was a boy, before I was reading chapter books, this was my favorite movie. I literally wore out multiple copies of the VHS. I can't say why it fascinated me, but looking back, I see traces of it everywhere in my contemporary interests. The kineticism, the movement, thematic musical motifs, the Disneyfied version of the 60s counter-culture... Most strongly, the idea of imbuing an inanimate object with personality and character to spin a narrative. That's this aspect of this peculiar story that influenced me the most.

Growing up in a rural area, my family made weekly pilgrimages to the post office where the local library's bookmobile would stop every Wednesday. I routinely requested this book, which was not in the bookmobile or the library's catalog but I remember the librarian was nice enough to put in an interlibrary loan for me, for this and one or two other books in the series. It's little more than a storybook, and not a well-written storybook at that but you can't beat it for nostalgia and it definitely had a huge impact on making me a lifelong reader.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this more than 40 years ago when I got the novelization, along with the three other original movies in the Herbie series, at a book fair for a buck. It contains several pages of black and white still images from the 1968 Disney movie. I feel the same about the novelization as I feel about the film, and for that matter, most Disney live action movies between 1964's "Mary Poppins" and 1994's "The Jungle Book". Flimsy, inoffensive, Snidely Whiplash villains, and fun to sit through. Once. If you're a kid. A little kid.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in a pile of books while at the cottage for the New Year's celebration. (That pile of books had been purchased a couple of years earlier at a yard sale.) I decided to give it a quick read.

It was not terrible, and apparently I have almost no memories of the story, despite watching the movie as a child, but it wasn't very good, either.

Jim's character (race car driver) seems inconsistent at times. He knows that Herbie is special and that the little car can drive by itself. But he also protects his ego by insisting that the implausible race victories are due to his driving skills. Of course, Herbie gets offended after too much of this, and a crisis ensues.

It took about 4o minutes to read, and that might be the best thing about it.

[Adrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as a child, enjoyed it.

[Cora James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herbie wins the race and my heart. Every time.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I had a copy of this way back when but this is another landlord rescue book. At one time this well read book belonged to Wayne Sleme.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

another cute read for the book/movie project the my sister and I are working on. I liked the 2nd book better.